Where We Work
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Climate: Mostly mid-latitude desert, long, hot summers, mild winters; semiarid grassland in east
Terrain: Mostly flat-to-rolling sandy desert with dunes; broad, flat intensely irrigated river valleys along course of Amu Darya, Syr Darya (Sirdaryo), and Zaravshan; Fergana Valley in east surrounded by mountainous Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan; shrinking Aral Sea in west
Environment Issues: Shrinkage of the Aral Sea has resulted in growing concentrations of chemical pesticides and natural salts; these substances are then blown from the increasingly exposed lake bed and contribute to desertification and respiratory health problems; water pollution from industrial wastes and the heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides is the cause of many human health disorders; increasing soil salination; soil contamination from buried nuclear processing and agricultural chemicals, including DDT
Languages: Uzbek (official) 74.3%, Russian 14.2%, Tajik 4.4%, other 7.1%
Government Type: Presidential Republic; highly authoritarian