In Tajikistan, a joint UN survey in spring 2008 also identified the areas and family groups356 most typically without secure sources of food. Notably, these were urban areas, like Khujand and Taboshar in the north and Qurganteppe and Sarband in the south. Households with difficulties feeding themselves typically relied on self-employment (in 30% of cases) or on casual day labour in the agricultural or non-agricultural sectors for income (in 20% of cases). This is the employment pattern of urban stateless persons in Tajikistan interviewed by UNHCR. Additionally, the survey found that 34% of the rural population in Tajikistan has insecure access to food, sometimes because trade and transport networks do not reach them. It seems probable that stateless persons in rural areas share this problem. Since 1991, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan have dismantled the State Farm system they inherited from the USSR and oriented it towards grain production, a proportion of it for export within the region. Local research suggests that this re-orientation may have made less food available at the household level. The impact on stateless persons in their territories is not known.357 5.2 Water and sanitation Water is a contentious subject in the Central Asia region. Upstream, it is required by Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to generate electricity and diversify their farming. Downstream, it is used by Turkmenistan, South West Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to irrigate their cotton harvest.358 There have been periodic disputes about the quantities of irrigation water released, and the cost of fossil fuels provided in exchange.359 Agriculture consumes 80% of the water supply in Central Asia. Households have access to only 20%, which they share with industry.360 Traditionally, regional agreements on water have focussed on water distribution, and not on its overall supply. The needs of domestic users have had relatively low priority. According to World Bank statistics, only 30% of households in the region have access to piped drinking water.361 This leaves 25 million people without it. In some areas, the percentage of people without access to piped drinking water is higher than the regional average. In northern Turkmenistan, for instance, 76% of the population is reported to be without piped drinking water.362 This is where most stateless persons in Turkmenistan are known to live. According to UNDP, 41% of the urban and rural populations of Tajikistan are estimated to be without piped drinking water.363 Kyrgyz data comes from areas known to have dense populations of stateless persons.364 The Kyrgyz meteorological agency reports that in 2008, river flows were only 65% of their 30-year average in Chui; 60% in Osh; and 50% in Jalalabad.365 In 2009, some villagers were reported to be moving north 356 UN World Food Programme, UNICEF and FAO, Rural Tajikistan Emergency Food Assessment, Joint Food Security Livelihood and Nutrition Assessment, April/May 2008. 357 Baydilina, Akshiabay, Bayeteva, Mkrtichyan, Haliepesasa, Aktaev, Agricultural Reforms and Food Security in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, Food Policy, Vol 25, Issue 6, Amsterdam, December 2000, pp 629-747. 358 In the USSR this arrangement was brokered by the Ministry of Land Reclamation and Water Resources in Moscow and administered by Ministries of Water in the Central Asian Republics. Darya Pushkina, Cooperation or Conflict: Water in Central Asia, Conference Paper, International Studies Association, San Diego, California, 2006. 359 International Crisis Group Report, Water and Conflict, Asia, No 34, 30 May 2002, available at www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=1440. 360 Dr.David Smith, Water in Central Asia: Access and Availability, University of Arizona, 1999, available at http://ag.arizona.edu/oals/ALN/aln45/central-asia.html#water. 361 Cited by UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs, Running Dry: the Humanitarian Impact of the Global Water Crisis, October 2006, available at http://www.irinnews.org/IndepthMain.aspx?reportid=62312&indepthid=13. 362 UNICEF data for 2007, available at http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/Turkmenistan.html. 363 Figures from the 2006 UNDP Human Development Global Report http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR06-complete.pdf. 364 UN High Commissioner for Refugees, A Place to Call Home. The Situation of Stateless persons in the Kyrgyz Republic: Findings of Surveys Commissioned by the UNHCR, UNHCR Bishkek, 2009. 365 Cited in the Central Asia Regional Risk Assessment by UNDP. ~ 56 ~