Central Asia’s Aral Sea basin experiences multi-year periods of high and low water. Low-water periods often correspond to poor harvests, higher food prices, reduced hydroelectric production, and heightened inter-state tensions in Central Asia. The most recent drought, in 2008, contributed to the “compound crisis” of water, energy, and food insecurity that particularly affected poor households in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan during that and subsequent years. Raw data on water volumes, inflows, and outflows in Central Asia’s largest reservoirs are therefore reported every ten days on the CAWATERinfo website, with observations extending back to 1991-1992. These data are collected for Central Asia’s largest reservoirs, including: Nurek (Tajikistan, Amu-Darya basin), Tyuyamuyn (Uzbekistan, Amu-Darya basin), Andijan (Kyrgyzstan, Syr-Darya basin), Charvak (Uzbekistan, Syr-Darya basin), Kayrakkum (Tajikistan, Syr-Darya basin), and Toktogul (Kyrgyzstan, Syr-Darya basin). UNDP’s Central Asia water database presents these high-frequency data in terms of their trends relative to multi-year averages, in order to provide a more user-friendly picture of the extent to which high- or low-water conditions are in fact present in the Aral Sea basin. In addition to providing the full data base of raw data, UNDP’s Central Asia water database also provides these data in chart and indicator format.
