Uzbek President Islam Karimov sent a letter to his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbaev on 14 February blaming the current excess of water in the basin of the Syr Darya River on Kyrgyzstan\'s carelessness in releasing water from the Toktogul reservoir. Karimov said this is not the first year that Kyrgyzstan has put its own needs for power generation before the irrigation needs of its downstream neighbors, adding that all the countries of the Syr Darya basin should be involved in decisions about the river\'s water. Kyrgyzstan has argued that it needed to generate additional electricity to meet a contract to sell power to Russia. The Uzbek president went on to emphasize the importance of each of the three countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan) directly involved in the current situation on the Syr Darya fulfilling the commitments undertaken at intergovernmental meetings in Shymkent in January and Bishkek. After the Shymkent meeting, Uzbekistan was criticized by the other two countries for not fulfilling its obligations. (akipress.org)