Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan Seeks Emergency Foreign Aid Amid Drought
Associated Press, September 13, 2000

Uzbekistan's government has appealed for international aid to cope with a drought that has destroyed crops and drastically reduced supplies of safe drinking water, officials said Wednesday. The damage to the Central Asian nation's small, shaky economy is estimated at 14.5 billion som (dlrs 49.8 million), the Economics Ministry press service said. It did not say how much aid the country is seeking or from whom. The worst-hit area is the autonomous province of Karalpakia on the Aral Sea. Water levels in the man-made Tuyamyun lake, the region's only source of drinking water, are down 75 percent compared to last year, the ministry said. The drought has killed all of Karalpakia's rice fields, which need large amounts of water to survive, and many other crops, the press service said. With clean drinking water in short supply, health officials have warned that diseases may spread.