EurasiaNet Civil Society - Turkmenistan: Some Experts Link Cotton Cultivation to Epidemic

CIVIL SOCIETY

TURKMENISTAN: SOME EXPERTS LINK COTTON CULTIVATION TO EPIDEMIC
Aisha Berdyeva 9/18/07

A mysterious illness, featuring flu-like symptoms, is sweeping across two of Turkmenistan’s most populous regions, Ashgabat and Dashoguz. Some health care professionals quietly link the outbreak to cotton cultivation, which requires the heavy use of defoliants, pesticides and other toxic agents.

Ashgabat residents report that the disease -- the symptoms of which are headaches, a stuffed-up nose, a hacking cough and runny eyes -- struck suddenly around the start of September. "I noticed that all of a sudden all our family members fell ill almost at the same time," said one resident of Turkmen capital.

"At first I thought it was an infection, and we contracted the disease from one another. Our doctor prescribed antibiotics which we took for a week," the resident continued. "However, we didn’t feel any better, all the symptoms were the same, though people who have the flu or a cold usually show signs of recovery in 3-4 days. In addition, schoolchildren, the kids of my acquaintances, and our neighbors � fell ill practically at the same time, which is strange."

The Turkmen government -- which under former dictator Saparmurat Niyazov adopted a secretive approach toward public health issues -- has been reluctant to raise a public alarm. Doctors and clinic workers say they have been instructed to diagnose the illness as an upper respiratory ailment.

But a health-care official in Ashgabat, speaking on condition of anonymity, admitted that the epidemic is not caused by the spread of germs, but is instead an allergic reaction. And many experts are convinced that chemicals used in cotton cultivation are the culprits.

"We have experienced this problem for a few years already. In the season of cotton ripening and harvesting, the rate of [upper respiratory] disorders � sharply increases," the health-care official said. "I presume the authorities will never acknowledge that this is a reaction to the chemicals used in cotton harvesting, as this is tantamount to acknowledging that the health and life of Turkmen citizens is of no value at all. Don’t forget that our president [Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov] is a medic, so everything has to be �ok’ in this area."

Just about the only official indication that something is amiss was a decree, issued by Berdymukhamedov and published September 10 in local newspapers, that prohibited the use of schoolchildren in harvesting the cotton crop. Traditionally, students in Turkmenistan spend several weeks in the fields each fall, helping to gather the crop. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. A 2006 Asian Development Bank report characterized cotton as one of Turkmenistan’s key exports.

Cotton cultivation requires the intensive use of environmentally hazardous chemicals. It is estimated for example, that cotton consumes 25 percent of the pesticides used worldwide. In Turkmenistan, Soviet-era stockpiles that are especially harmful to humans are believed to be still in use. A dangerous amount of these chemicals, some experts believe, ends up in groundwater.

According to a local ecologist, until only a few years ago the health fallout from cotton cultivation was limited mainly to Turkmen farms. The scope of the problem began expanding as oversight of the use of toxic agents started to erode, the ecologist added. Niyazov demanded higher harvest totals each year, and farmers, fearing the consequences of not fulfilling the Turkmenbashi’s dictates, sacrificed safety for increased production.

The government’s refusal to admit mistakes, combined with inattention to the proper use of hazardous agents, has left doctors in an awkward position. "Small children are especially vulnerable, and this is most terrible," said one Ashgabat pediatrician. "Though we are instructed to tell nobody that this is an allergic condition, I just can’t keep parents in the dark about the real state of affairs in these cases, and merely prescribe absolutely useless antibiotics. Of course, I recommend taking antihistamines. We, doctors, are facing a dual challenge here: to help our patients, and to [keep] our job."

Some savvy Ashgabat residents are avoiding the health-care system altogether. "I know that in September my children will begin to suffer from an allergic condition, and I have children’s syrup for allergy ready at hand. This happens every year, my elder son has been suffering from this for five years already," said an Ashgabat mother of two.

"At first I thought it was a cold, but later it became clear that this is an allergic condition. Now I don’t even call for a doctor," the mother continued. "I know that all the symptoms will disappear in a month or a month and a half, when cotton harvesting is over. The only thing I do not understand is why our doctors lie to us, saying it’s the flu?"

Editor�s Note: Aisha Berdyeva is a pseudonym for a Central Asia-based reporter who specializes in political and economic developments.

The Central Eurasia Project aims, through its website, meetings, papers, and grants, to foster a more informed debate about the social, political and economic developments of the Caucasus and Central Asia. It is a program of the Open Society Institute-New York. The Open Society Institute-New York is a private operating and grantmaking foundation that promotes the development of open societies around the world by supporting educational, social, and legal reform, and by encouraging alternative approaches to complex and controversial issues.

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