Archive · 2014 · From the print edition of Tuesday 24 June 2014, Vol. 22, No. 6,662
Across IradTalas and the Clans Protest UNESCO Listing of Kok-Tash
In a rare point of agreement, both the ISEZ government and the tribal elders object that the Silk Roads nomination treats the ancient karez system as Kazakh and Kyrgyz territory.
TALAS — The Kok-Tash Kariz, the network of underground irrigation channels beneath the foothills of the Talas Alatau, has been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as a component of the Silk Roads serial property nominated by Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The Caravanserai of Rabat-i-Safed was included in the same way. Irad is not a State Party to the World Heritage Convention.
The ISEZ government and the Iradi Freedom Society both protested that the nomination treated the sites as Kazakh and Kyrgyz territory. The Department of Public Information said the government had conveyed its objection through the UN mission. Clan elders of the IAC set out theirs in a letter, carried to Kara-Oi by courier, saying that the galleries had been dug and kept by the people of the valleys and that no foreign state had asked their leave.
The system has about 140 km of tunnels, expanded under the Kara-Khanids, and still supplies water to more than 40 villages. Most of it lies on the tribal side of the Qara-Chik line, where it is maintained by village councils of elders and water masters. Hydrologists at Talas State University welcomed the international attention but warned that falling groundwater and collapsing galleries threaten its condition.