For Nurlan Kenenov’s three-year-old daughter, the symptoms started with yellowing eyes. Then a fever set in. Fortunately, she got well on her own, but now his nephew is in the hospital, fighting hepatitis. “There were at least 20 children” there when they checked him in, Kenenov said. “Many more had been there before we arrived.”
Water, water everywhere in Kyrgyzstan – except when and where it’s needed. Kyrgyzstan is a Central Asian nation that traditionally has been well endowed with water. But, in an era marked by global warming, old assumptions about water supplies are changing, and farmers are getting nervous.
Villagers in Daroot-Korgon, high in southwest Kyrgyzstan’s Chon-Alai range, can finally see the ground. But following the harshest winter in memory, many herders are facing a struggle to stay on their feet.
While hard economic times in Kyrgyzstan may prompt feelings of nostalgia among some for the Soviet era, few days pass in the remote mountain village of Orto Talaa when many residents don’t curse the calamity that was Communist central planning.
Under Soviet forestry regulations, if a goat wandered into the walnut grove, standard practice was to shoot it. “Goats will eat anything,” says Hayat Tarikov, raising his arms into shooting posture. Tarikov used to work as a forest ranger in Arslanbob, at a time when the walnut forest was protected and its usage regulated under Soviet central planning.
