DUSHANBE, October 8, 2010, Asia-Plus — Uzbek President Islam Karimov has reiterated his opposition to construction of the Roghun hydroelectric power plant in Tajikistan during his visit to the Karakalpastan region, Uzbekistan Daily reported on October 7.
During the meeting with citizens, Karimov said, “At present, the Syr Darya River waters do not reach the Aral Sea. If you ask me what feeds areas near the Aral Sea, it is waters flowing from the Amu Darya River. At a time when the Aral Sea is drying up, should we not firmly keep the Amu Darya River saying that ”you will not reduce its water even to one gram”?”
According to Uzbekistan Daily, President Karimov said that Uzbekistan would firmly fight against the project. “We started the fight against the project on construction of the Roghun power plant five years ago. If a 350-meter dam is built, it will take eight years to fill it. Water will be accumulated during eight years. And will we, who are at the lower reaches of the Amu Darya River, wait for eight years?”
“What will the Uzbek people in areas near the Amu Darya river, do? How we will live and grow crops? There will be no irrigation,” Uzbek president said.
It is be noted that formerly one of the four largest lakes of the world with an area of 68,000 square kilometers, the Aral Sea has been steadily shrinking since the 1960s after the rivers that fed it were diverted by Soviet Union irrigation projects. By 2007 it had declined to 10% of its original size. The construction of irrigation canals began on a large scale in the 1940s. Many of the canals were poorly built, allowing water to leak or evaporate. From the Qaraqum Canal, the largest in Central Asia, perhaps 30 to 75% of the water went to waste. Today only 12% of Uzbekistan”s irrigation canal length is waterproofed.
As far as the Roghun hydroelectricity project is concerned, Roghun hydropower plant sits 110 kilometer east of Dushanbe, on the river Vaksh. When it is finished, the planned 335-meter dam will be the tallest in the world. For a mountainous country with thousands of glaciers but no hydrocarbons, harnessing the power of water is the obvious solution. With Roghun Tajikistan could one day export electricity to neighboring Afghanistan, Pakistan and China.
The Memorandum of Understanding singed between the Government of Tajikistan and the World Bank in March 2010 establishes the key foundational principles and the scope of cooperation between the Government of Tajikistan and the World Bank to achieve sustainable development of Tajikistan”s energy resources, secure supply of energy services to the people of Tajikistan and promote balanced economic growth. The sides agreed to initiate and advance the techno-economic, the environmental and social impact assessments will be conducted for the Roghun hydroelectricity project
