DUSHANBE, August 22, 2011, Asia-Plus – Tajik experts consider that the World Bank assessment team that has recommended the Tajik Government to refrain from constructing an intermediate dam has not considered the Roghun hydroelectricity project thoroughly.
Bahrom Sirojev notes that the Word Bank specialists’ understanding of construction of the Roghun dam is wrong. “There is no any intermediate dam and 120 meters do not mean that this dam is intermediate,” said the expert, “The dam must be built up continuously. Construction of the dam and increase in water level must be conducted in parallel.”
He considers that international experts have not yet examined the Roghun project thoroughly. According to him, the World Bank specialists are just delaying the dam construction term, “though they know that we intend to block the Vakhsh River in November.”
For his part, Georgy Petrov, a lead specialist with the Institute of Water Resources of the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, noted that sediment load carried by the Vakhsh River was not so a big deal – “they will just fill the reservoir and the plant… The Farkhad hydropower plant has operated in such a regime for almost fifty years.”
“The problem is that after filling of the reservoir sediment load will go through the plant’s tunnels and supply conduits and will cripple them,” Petrov noted. He considers that a 120-meter intermediate dam is economically unprofitable, because it will not cover means spent for construction of it. “Therefore, phased construction of the dam is economically profitable,” said the expert. “Anyway, the dam itself is being constructed gradually – firstly 50 meters, then 70, 100, 120 and so forth.”
He stated that if the government does not have enough funds for construction of the dam higher than 120 meters “we should not have begun construction of the plant, because the accident that took place at the Roghun site in 1993 was caused by lack of funds for continuation of the construction work.”
We will recall that the World Bank Team of experts completed its 10-day visit to Tajikistan to review the progress of the Assessment Studies for the proposed Roghun Project on August 15. The team was reportedly accompanied by the two independent Panels of Experts – the Engineering and Dam Safety Panel and the Environment and Social Panel, whose role is to ensure that international standards of design, risk evaluation and impact assessment are met.
During the visit, the experts visited the Roghun site, communities residing within the proposed reservoir area, the Norak HPP and the Vakhsh River basin, and held a number of working meetings with representatives of the Government of Tajikistan, Roghun Joint Stock Company and Barqi Tajik, and the two international consulting firms who are conducting the Assessment Studies.
The Bank Team has concluded that the Assessment Studies, which started in March 2011, are making notable progress. In a period of about five months, the international consultants have collected and analyzed a large amount of available data and studies, and have produced several initial assessments and reports. The assessments have provided inputs relating to the initial environmental and social screening, design criteria, technical specifications for additional geotechnical investigations, methodologies for evaluating the operation of the Vakhsh cascade, and an assessment of an intermediate height dam as a stand-alone project. Initial estimates of high floods were found to be generally in line with current estimates, and critical site investigations could be completed earlier than previously expected. The initial assessments also identified aspects that require further review and analysis.
Among other findings and discussions, the international consultants undertaking the Techno-Economic Assessment Study concluded that starting immediate construction of an initial stage of the proposed Roghun HPP with an intermediate height dam of 120 meters is not recommended, primarily due to the heavy sediment load carried by the Vakhsh River. The Panels of Experts and the Bank Team concurred with this assessment and recommended to move forward expeditiously with the comprehensive technical, economic, environmental and social assessment of the full-height dam. In this regard, the good progress of the on-going assessment studies provides a solid basis for comprehensive assessment of the full height dam, which could take from 6 to 8 months to complete.
According to press release issued by the Word Bank, the work on the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment has, in general, progressed well and disclosure of the full assessment is expected during the first half of 2012 for further discussion and consultation.
This visit was part of the process to carry out the two Assessment Studies for the proposed Roghun HPP – the Techno-Economic Assessment Study and the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment. Earlier this year, based on a competitive selection, the studies were contracted to two international firms – a consortium led by Coyne & Bellier for the Techno-Economic Assessment, and Poyry for the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment.
