By Kang Hyun-kyung
In Azerbaijan, water has been a source of disputes with its neighbors since it became an independent country after the former Soviet Union dissolved in 1991.
Last December, South Korea’s aid agency announced it would lend a helping hand to the country plagued with drinking water shortages and water contamination in the hope of easing tensions over these difficulties.
The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) unveiled an 80-billion won climate change initiative to help Azerbaijan, Mongolia and the Philippines fight water-related problems.
The three countries face a variety of challenges concerning water shortage or contamination.
The aid agency said an estimated 300,000 people in Azerbaijan, 330,000 in Mongolia and 9,000 households in the Philippines will benefit from KOICA’s water resource management projects.
This is part of the so-called “green ODA” (Official Development Assistance) project under the East Asia Climate Partnership (EACP). President Lee Myung-bak proposed the EACP in a speech to the expanded Group of Eight Summit held in Tokyo in 2008.
Under the initiative, Korea plans to spend $200 million to help Asian countries fight climate change. The aid agency is overseeing the climate change project.
In Azerbaijan, KOICA plans to sponsor the construction of reservoirs and other facilities that will help people recycle water. Located downstream of the Kura-Araks River, people in Azerbaijan suffer from drinking water shortages as there is heavy contamination from chemical, industrial and radioactive pollutants. The problem is acute as the country has no groundwater resources, unlike its two neighbors, Georgia and Armenia.
As the polluted water flows into Azerbaijan, people there complain about water quality which the two nations upstream are responsible for polluting. Piped drinking water is available to less than half of the people in the country.
Beside drinking water quality, climate change has added difficulties to people in Azerbaijan, as desertification is rife in the northern territory.
In the rural areas of the Philippines, crop production has decreased over the past few years due to climate change-driven drought. The hostile weather conditions have led to increasing poverty in the northern and southern rural areas in the Southeast Asian country.
Under the EACP initiative, KOICA plans to set up cluster housing agriculture and industrial facilities in the Philippines. The aid agency will transfer water management technology and build dams and water lanes to provide farmers with sufficient water.