On 15 March 2022, Dr. Kinga Szálkai, Associate Professor at the Institute of Social Sciences and International Relations, Budapest Metropolitan University, and Associate Research Fellow at the OSCE Academy, delivered a Public Lecture on "Central Asian Water Cooperation after COVID-19: Could the Pandemic Challenge the Achievements of the Recent ‘Water Thaw’?” Dr. Kinga Szálkai discussed the impact of COVID-19 on the recent positive turn in the dynamics of regional water in Central Asia. In the first part of the lecture, Dr. Szálkai examined the effects of the pandemic on the economic, social, and political variables influencing water-related issues. The analysis of these intervening variables shows how the adverse impact of the pandemic on different areas has the potential to influence regional water cooperation negatively. Furthermore, Dr. Szálkai focused on recent events and developments related to regional cooperation. Regional cooperation makes another important intervening variable to test the connection between the impact of the pandemic and regional water cooperation because the likelihood of the development of water cooperation is higher when regional cooperation functions well in general. In particular, Dr. Szálkai analyzed the functioning of regional cooperation in two extremely sensitive cases of interstate water-related tensions during the pandemic, namely the Sardoba dam catastrophe in 2020 and the Kyrgyz-Tajik conflict in 2021.
Research paper on "Central Asian Water Cooperation after COVID-19: Could the Impact of the Pandemic Challenge the Achievements of the Recent ‘Water Thaw’?" is available here.