Photo courtesy of Bruce Pannier Christian Thorsberg, Circle of Blue The border shared by Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan is a strip of hard-edged hills and scoured ridges. Apricot orchards occupy scarce flatlands and oxen graze on thinning fields of green. Nearly half of the 600-mile border remains unofficial and non-delineated, a Soviet-era ambiguity with consequences that reverberate today. Drive for an hour through Kyrgyzstan’s southwestern Batken province and one might cross between the two countries a dozen times, depending on where your GPS was configured. Adding to the complexity, pockets of Tajik territory are nested within Kyrgyzstan. Distrust among the region’s ethnic groups is exacerbated by extreme water insecurity. Snowy peaks in the distant Turkestan and Alai ranges are the source of fresh water in arid Batken, where irrigation canals and sanitation networks are vital yet crumbling. Most essential is the Golovnoy Water Intake Center, the dilapidated and lone water distribution infrastructure in the border province.