I am currently living in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where taps in some parts of the city have been inconsistently shut on and off by the city government for over two weeks. Throughout my time here I have become well aware of the water crisis in Central Asia, especially in Western Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, where the infamous Aral Sea is a mere puddle of what it used to be.

However, I was not expecting a water shortage to hit the capital for quite some time, and certainly not this summer.