Tajik President Emomali Rahmon recently attended a water usage conference in Daegu, South Korea. As expected, Tajikistan’s first and only president made reference to Tajikistan’s abundant water resources, and vowed to make greater use of them in the coming years. Specifically, he called for scientists and other experts from around the world to come to Tajikistan to assist in efforts to develop water resources in Tajikistan and allow for the export of water and hydro-power to countries where shortages of “pure drinking water” exist.

In relation to its neighbors, Tajikistan possesses vast amounts of water, though it has done little to make use of them. High-level talks with Iran, for instance, were never practical, and regional discourse has failed to bear fruit. The status of the CASA-1000 project is still heralded as a breakthrough in energy relations in South and Central Asia, although progress has not been consistent and efforts to build dams in Tajikistan have faced similar developmental issues. In his speech, Rahmon alleged that Tajikistan could make an “exemplary contribution” to combatting world water shortages, though his speech failed to make mention of how.

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