Melting glaciers hit Tajik lives

Melting glaciers are changing the way people live.

11,000 feet up, climate change is stripping the landscape bare in the Zerafshan Valley in the north of Tajikistan.

It's one of the remotest places on earth. But it's at the heart of a problem facing the leaders of the G8 as they meet. In May ten years ago, the snow lay thick here. But now the spring melt has a permanent effect.

"I'm saddened as there's no water and less ice than there used to be. I worry the lands won't have enough water to grow grass for the goats." - Abdulkahar Kaharov, local shepherd

And as the snowfall lessens, these glaciers are also seeing historic change, retreating by 20 metres a year.

Tajik glaciers provide most of the water from this region. At this time of year they're melting but at the same time they're also receding and officials and aid workers are worried this will drastically reduce the amount of water that's available to this country and its neighbours.

"These mountains provide water for the entire Central Asia with water so anyting that happens here will have an effect on the lives of people on the economies of countries for the coming years. We see that these glaciers are receding and we interpret that as an effect of climate change." - Karl Nilsson, UNDP spokesman

In just another decade's time, shrinking glaciers could cause water shortages in this village downstream. But for now there's plenty of water. Too much in fact, in some places in the country's south - causing landslides and flash flooding.

Tajikistan is Central Asia's poorest country - rugged in the north, but arid and flat to the south. Here cattle churn up what's left of a riverbed. Since the Soviet Union collapsed, the country's infrastructure's been struggling to cope. And that was before the temperature rose by up to one and a half degrees in just ten years.

A pipe installed by Oxfam was a lifeline, a local engineer tells me - feeding spring water to three thousand people. But then a landslide shattered it.

And without it, the irrigation ditches are this village's only source of water. Local fathers speak of their anger - drinking dirt in a land seen as the water basin of Central Asia.

Said says his six -year-old son Shamsod, has had TB in his bones for two years. They blame the infection on cows feeding in the water. Medically, that's unlikely.

But the water here is both more scarce and dirtier than it used to be. And dirty water does damage the immune system. TB's been rising across the country. One of many diseases that a more hostile climate helps spread.

The Soviets called this the Valley of Death. But now its diseased past is back. The water muddying, bringing dysentery and diarrhoea, which even the local doctor's children have caught.

The temperature is rising by 2 degrees each year. It's destructive and effects people too. Disease and stomach complaints will rise in this area.

Now the pipe is broken and the tap outside Khatika Latifova's house is dry, she's drinking from the channel again. Making tea is quite a chore in this village of 800. She lets the water settle, then spends half an hour boiling it. Even that didn't stop her son catching dysentery

"The water smells of every terrible thing possible. At midday, it smells of cow dung because the farm animals pass over it all day.. It's thick, dirty, muddy.

"It's not right. I'm sure you wouldn't even clean your hands with this water, but we drink it." - Khatika Latifova

She too has had TB and it's left her weak. And now her 22 year old son has caught it. She says her family feels constantly sick, but just can't afford to leave.

But less water means migration, just over an hour away in the Timur Malik area. As the climate's got hotter, people are moving from areas prone to landslides and floods, mostly to the capital.

We went to see one of three taps that comes on for two hours in the evening meaning this village has to go through the punishing heat of the day without a water source. It's one of the key reasons people for leaving. Landslides flash flooding and this serious water shortage meant that across Tajikistan people are forced to leave the villages they grew up in.

Shosodamo Yusupova is one such person leaving - the state will give her land in another area. But she'll have to build her new home herself.

"I'm leaving as I have 9 sons, one daughter but only one house. And because of the lack of water. My living conditions here are very bad. There's no electricity and my vegetable garden's dry." - Shosodamo Yusupova

As we talk to her, two officials arrive to collect a water tax - she pays about 50 pence. But water's costly here. And it's perhaps cheaper for the state to move people to it, than bring it to them.

As she registers to migrate, a local official explains why nearly a thousand people are leaving next month.

"It's water," she says. "That's first and foremost. It's fast becoming a flashpoint for the region.

This river flows into neighbouring Uzbekistan. Tajikistan wants to damn it, and generate electricity. So Uzbekistan's threatened to cut off gas supplies in return."

Water's big money. It grows cotton, which makes both countries millions. Future G8 meetings could have to address wars being fought over it.

But for now, its growing lack condemns Tajiks to toil on a barren, unhealthy land.

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