DUSHANBE, July 23, 2008, Asia-Plus — Kazakhstan now has no complaints against Tajikistan over the water issue as the situation was clarified.
The Minister of Land Reclamation and Water Resource Said Yoqubzod remarked this while speaking to reporters in Dushanbe yesterday.
We will recall that in a recent interview with Kazakhstan Today, Anatoly Ryabtsev, head of the water resources department within the Kazakh Ministry of Agriculture, claimed that Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have allegedly not fulfilled their obligations on letting Kyrgyz water go. The Kazakh official noted that under an agreement between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the Kyrgyz side had increased outflow of water from the Toktogul reservoir in order to increase the electrical power production for Kazakhstan. Ryabtsev noted that his negotiations with Uzbek and Tajik sides had not yielded any results.
In the meantime, Yoqubzod noted that he had had telephone conversation with Ryabtsev and proved that Tajikistan has nothing to do with that water problem and Ryabtsev apologized.
