The reconfiguration of hydrosocial territories in rural Uzbekistan: Evidence from Samarkand Province

Madina Gazieva
School of Law and Government, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland; madina.gazieva2@mail.dcu.ie

ABSTRACT: In recent years, Uzbekistan has embarked on an expansive agricultural modernisation programme, cast under the banner of the 'Green Economy'. Within the agriculture sector, this has entailed an overhaul of the former cotton-centred production model in favour of high-value crops and vertically integrated clusters that are irrigated using the most up-to-date technologies. This paper argues that such a process entails 'hydrosocial re-territorialisation', which is characterised by a shift from horizontal, socially mediated surface-flow interdependencies to vertical and individualised groundwater access. Using the case of the pseudonymised village 'Dostlik' in Samarkand Province, the paper looks at local manifestations of Uzbekistan’s current hydro-agrarian overhaul, arguing that hydrosocial re-territorialisation – by facilitating water grabbing – becomes the locus of agrarian change, experienced as 'slow violence' by rural residents. The effects are felt most acutely by scattered, informal homestead farmers who must continually dig deeper wells to irrigate their plots.

KEYWORDS: Political ecology of water, hydrosocial territories, slow violence, Green Economy, homestead farmers, Uzbekistan

Feeding Istanbul: The Melen water transfer project and the anatomy of a silent environmental conflict

Çisem Kırcı
Boğaziçi University, Institute of Environmental Sciences, Istanbul, Turkey; cisem.kirci@gmail.com

Cem İskender Aydın
Boğaziçi University, Institute of Environmental Sciences, Istanbul, Turkey; cem.aydin@bogazici.edu.tr

ABSTRACT: Istanbul is Turkey’s economic and cultural capital. With a population approaching 16 million, it uses resources, particularly water, from far beyond its borders. The city’s persistent water scarcity, exacerbated by its exponential growth, has necessitated large-scale infrastructural interventions, including interbasin water transfer projects such as the Great Melen Project (GMP). This project, the nation’s second largest water transfer scheme, entailed the displacement of numerous rural communities via urgent expropriation decisions by the government – a procedure designed for use only in extreme circumstances such as war or natural disasters. This study investigates the social ramifications of this project, focusing on the 2014 evacuation of Ortaköy village in the basin. Through in-depth interviews with diverse stakeholders, particularly former residents, the researchers examine the project’s impact on local people’s lives and livelihoods. The project has been hailed as a technological and engineering marvel; however, the findings demonstrate how readily the Melen region is being sacrificed for the sake of the nation’s economic growth ideals. These are embodied in an idealised ‘modernisation’ narrative that justifies prioritisation of the needs of Istanbul as the country’s economic and cultural engine and thereby produces consent among the villagers.

KEYWORDS: Interbasin water transfers, political ecology, environmental justice, Istanbul, Great Melen Project, Turkey