An acute water shortage in Uzbekistan seems to have a silver lining. The brewing crisis is forcing officials to speedily embrace solar and wind power and rethink the country’s hydropower strategy to make it more water-efficient. Uzhydroenergo, a state-run electricity entity, reported January 5 that hydropower production plummeted by 20 percent in 2025, totaling 6.5 billion kilowatt hours (kWh). By comparison, Uzbekistan generated 8.1 kWh from hydropower in 2024. Officials attributed the drop in production…