Renowned agro-expert Kirill Pavlov has vividly illustrated how Kazakhstan could face a water crisis next year due to a new canal in Afghanistan, with Afghanistan and Uzbekistan already diverting water from Kazakhstan.

On his Telegram channel, Kirill Pavlov presented the following facts:

«We’ve decided to visually demonstrate the threat posed by the construction of the Kosh-Tepa canal in Afghanistan. Previously, Central Asia’s runoff was 50.7 billion cubic meters, with Afghanistan contributing 14.9 billion cubic meters to the total volume. As Afghanistan is located at the beginning of the runoff, all other countries downstream will simply not receive this volume. The annual runoff of Central Asia will be reduced to 35.7 billion cubic meters. Naturally, deprived of the volume from the Amu Darya, Uzbekistan will promptly cut Kazakhstan off from this supply. It’s time to think about this now, Mr. Nurzhigitov, right now. And there’s no need to feed us stories, like Zulfia Bulatovna Thunberg, claiming she negotiated additional volumes. Finally, take a look at the speed of canal construction. ‘They are not your water management authorities’ has become a colloquial expression. If the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation continues to drag its feet, our chances will slip away like sand through our fingers.»