Global Rundown
- The Ob River in Russia is being studied for possible diversion to Central Asian countries, including Uzbekistan, where water shortages are widespread.
- More than 200 environmental organizations, citing water and energy concerns, have formed a coalition urging the U.S. to issue a moratorium on data center development.
- As its water crisis worsens, Iran is planning to purchase and import water from neighboring countries.
- Draft documents indicate the European Union is planning to roll back environmental reporting rules for industry, businesses, and farms.
The Lead
Researchers in Russia are once again evaluating a plan — first proposed more than a century ago — to divert water from Siberia’s Ob River to Central Asian countries currently facing acute shortages, the Times of Central Asia reports.
The major benefactor of this proposal would be Uzbekistan, which is at the center of a regional water crisis. A combination of inefficient water management, retreating glaciers, population growth, and demand for irrigation has left 13 percent of the region’s population without access to safe drinking water.
Ongoing drought has brought additional strain. According to a November report released by the United Nations, Uzbekistan’s average annual temperature has increased by three times the global average since the 1960s, and natural disasters cost the country $92 million per year. Each of the last six years — from 2019 through 2024 — has been considered “dry.”
“Uzbekistan is dealing with severe water stress, land degradation, and an accelerating rise in temperatures that outpaces the global average,” said UNEP’s Europe Office Director, Arnold Kreilhuber, in a press release.
Glacial melt accounts for 80 percent of river flow through Central Asia. According to the Caspian Policy Center, under current emissions scenarios, half of the region’s glaciers will fully melt within the next 25 years, placing this water balance in extreme limbo. In Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, major rivers have lost between 40 percent and 70 percent of their usual flow.
Meanwhile, existing water resources are managed poorly. “Agriculture and industry remain heavily dependent on outdated irrigation systems that waste up to half of the water they use annually,” the Times of Central Asia reports.
In May, the World Bank approved a $200 million concessional credit to help Uzbekistan modernize its agricultural and drainage infrastructure — a crucial step to conservation, as 80 percent of the country’s water sources originate outside its borders.
If the Ob River diversion is approved, an unspecified amount of water would be delivered to neighboring countries via a closed pipeline system. In 1970, when the plan was formally designated a Russian state priority, roughly 6.6 trillion gallons were imagined to be moved. Still, the project faces substantial questions about environmental impact and financing.
Recent WaterNews from Circle of Blue
- National AI Boom Hits Home as Demand for Power Surges — A wave of long-distance transmission projects for data centers threatens old-growth forests and pristine waters.
- Momentous Court Decisions Near For Line 5 Oil Pipeline — Jurists weigh primacy of state or federal law in oil pipeline operations.
This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers
230
Number of U.S. environmental groups that have addressed a letter to Congress demanding a nationwide moratorium on data center development, citing energy bill increases and unchecked water consumption.
According to the letter, convened by the advocacy group Food and Water Watch, a tripling of the country’s data centers over the next five years would “result in data centers consuming as much electricity as about 30 million households” and “as much water as is used by 18.5 million households.” To bring these campuses online, supported in large part by Trump Administration executive orders, 56 percent of electricity is being sourced from fossil fuels, the letter cites.
In Context: National AI Boom Hits Home as Demand for Power Surges
2
Number of major perennial rivers — the Helmand and Hari Rud rivers — that flow from Afghanistan into Iran. As the latter faces a looming Day Zero scenario in its capital Tehran, where reservoirs are virtually empty, officials are exploring options to purchase water from the former, Radio Free Europe reports.
This week, a senior deputy in Iran’s energy ministry warned that the crisis is “at the threshold of a point of no return.”
In Context: Iranian president says country is on brink of dire water crisis
On the Radar
The European Union is poised to relax environmental reporting laws for industrial facilities, farms, and businesses, according to draft documents obtained this week by Reuters.
Among the proposed rule changes is an end to the requirement that livestock farms and industrial facilities use an “environmental management system” to reduce pollution and disclose the usage of hazardous chemicals on site. Livestock and fish farms would also no longer need to report energy and water consumption, while businesses would no longer need to develop “transformation plans” aligning them with climate goals.
According to Reuters, the new plan would save roughly 1 billion Euros each year in administrative costs.
The news comes just several days after sweeping changes to European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) were proposed. If approved, the ESRS would eliminate 70 percent of the standard’s currently required data points — a change that corporate trade bodies and financial sector leaders argue would not undermine green goals.
Wetland Watch
Indonesia Flooding: The death toll in Indonesia has surpassed 900 people following massive floods and subsequent landslides last week, according to BBC. Though the storms were powerful, residents say that deforestation contributed to the devastation.
“The forest, which was supposed to act as a giant sponge for the upriver, ceased to function,” Tommy Adam, the West Sumatra Head of Environmental Advocacy at WALHI, an environmental justice organization, told France24.
Now, regional officials are reporting that water-borne diseases are spreading. Diarrhea, fever, and myalgia are an increasing concern, especially in and around flood-hit Aceh Tamiang regency, where there is just one hospital. Reuters reports that “medical equipment was covered with mud, syringes were scattered on the floor and floods swept medicines away.”
