DUSHANBE, May 22, Asia-Plus – Tajik capital has hosted international two-day conference on Lake Sarez.
An international conference opened in Dushanbe today to discuss results of scientific researches and long-term solution to the potential threat.
The conference is organized by Tajik Committee for Emergency Situations and Civil Defense (CES) and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR).
The source at a CES said that the conference aims to consider issues related to ways to support efforts of the Tajik government to prevent the possible destruction of the lake’s natural dam and select long-term solution to this problem on the basis of results and recommendations of the Lake Sarez Risk Mitigation Project as well as results of the scientific surveys conducted over the past ten years.
For many years, scientists have been concerned that the dam could break, sending the water from the lake into populated areas and ultimately into the Amudarya River, with catastrophic results for not only Tajikistan, but also for Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan.
According to Radio Liberty, the previous such gathering took place in 1997. Tajikistan and the international community have already provided more than $4 million in the past 10 years to closely monitor the dam, create an early-warning system, and implement other projects aimed at avoiding a major human catastrophe.
Lake Sarez was formed in 1911 after an enormous landslide caused by an earthquake in the Pamir Mountain range of Tajikistan blocked the Murgab river valley. The Lake Sarez, approximately 60 kilometers in length, contains close to 17 cubic kilometers of water. The natural dam, which retains the lake, named Usoy, is located at an altitude of 3200 meters. With a height of 567 meters from the lake bottom, it is the tallest dam, natural or man-made, in the world.
