Kazakhstan’s Water Crisis Is Emerging as a Major Threat to Economic Growth

Kazakh officials are working with international development banks and the UN Development Programme to address a burgeoning water shortage that threatens to throttle economic growth. Regional analysts say the water deficit, combined with the need to rapidly boost power-generation capacity, are two of Kazakhstan’s most formidable obstacles to achieving President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s modernization agenda. “The shortage of the resource has moved into the category of severe macroeconomic challenges, comparable in importance to access…