Comparative Research Design - The Politics of Water Institutional Reform in Neopatrimonial States - page 55

ing the Human Development Index (HDI) by the UNDP, out of the 177 countries ranked in
2006, Kyrgyzstan is on the 110 th and Tajikistan on the 122 nd rank. Their status is much better
than when purely measured in GDP per capita: then Kyrgyzstan takes on the 138 th and Tajikis
tan the 152 nd place. The high school enrollment and adult literacy rates a legacy of Soviet
education policies and a major difference to many other developing countries accounts for
the score on the HDI which is slightly better in comparison to the ranking based on the
GDP. 34
However, not only the development of the economy is of importance, but also its sectoral
structure. Like in many other developing countries, the industrial sector is rather weak and
agriculture plays a highly significant role. Compared to their neighboring states which are rich
in oil and gas resources, both countries do not possess abundant natural resources. The only
sectors worth mentioning are the aluminum production in Tajikistan, which accounts for 61%
of the exports, and gold mining in Kyrgyzstan, which accounts for 10% of GDP (Jones Luong
2003: 39). During Soviet rule, Central Asia was mainly considered to be a deliverer of unpro
cessed goods (especially cotton) and today's economic structure and infrastructure is still
marked by this past.
Therefore, a shared feature of both countries is the significance of agriculture for the na
tional economy. This might be surprising as both countries are mountainous countries; less
than 10% of the territory is arable land. The area of agricultural land in Tajikistan excluding
pastures is indicated as ranging from 739,000 ha to 860,000 ha. In Kyrgyzstan, it is about
1.435 Mio ha. Despite these geographical constraints and also despite the fact that agricultural
production declined about 50% since independence, it is an important sector: In Kyrgyzstan,
agriculture counts for 45% of the GDP, 40 % of the work force, and 30 % of the exports. In
Tajikistan, agriculture is also of vital economic importance: Cotton, whose production is espe
cially water intense, constitutes 43% of all planted crops and yields 11% of all export gains. 35
As for the workforce, 65 to 70% is engaged in agriculture (about one third more than in 1991).
Subsistence agriculture has become increasingly important, especially for the population which
lives in rural areas (ADB 2000a; Bucknall et al. 2003: 4; UNDP 2003: 33f, 38; UNECE 2004:
137; Pulatov 2004: 83).
These economic conditions have a direct impact on water usage: Water is a critical re
source for agriculture as a considerable degree of the land can only be cultivated with irriga
tion. Hence, agriculture is responsible for the highest amount of water use. The patterns of
water usage will be described in detail in the following chapter.

5.4.2

Water Resources and Water Usage

Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have many hydrological and geographic conditions in common.
Both are water rich countries at the headstream of transboundary rivers. Therefore physical
water scarcity may be excluded as a reason for conflicts and difficulties, which is necessary to
substantiate the premise that water crisis is a governance problem. This makes them “crucial
cases” (Eckstein 1975), as the problems they are faced with are most probably even stronger in
countries which suffer from water scarcity and therefore harder tensions or even conflicts over
water distribution. The implementation of reforms is analyzed in the 'best favorable circums
tances' concerning water availability aspects.
34 See http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/statistics/ (accessed 06/09/2007).
35 Hence it is the third most important export commodity besides aluminum (61%) and electricity (12%).