DUSHANBE, June 30, 2011, Asia-Plus — A report released by the Tajik MFA says that Mr. Struan Stevenson, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and Chair of the Intergroup on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development, considers that the Roghun hydroelectricity project is of strategic significance to the extremely poor Central Asian region.
“In Afghanistan and Pakistan, an extreme poverty and lack of jobs have brought youth into hands of drug lords and Islamic terrorists. Reliable supply of electricity from Tajikistan will change the scattered economy of this region and create new jobs and opportunities for their citizens broken impoverished and tired of war,” the report quoted MEP Stevenson as saying.
MEP is convinced that West must welcome and support this project. “Meanwhile, instead of this we try to reassure the loudest opponent of the Roghun hydroelectricity project – neighboring Uzbekistan,” notes MEP Stevenson, “The Uzbek side is hostile to the Roghun scheme. They state that it is reckless to build the world’s highest dam in an area of significant seismic activity and that any consequent damages to the 335-meter dam will have destructive consequences for the downstream nations, including Uzbekistan. They also fear that the Roghun hydroelectric power plant (HPP) will give Tajikistan an opportunity to regulate the flow of water to Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan’s hostility against the Roghun HPP manifests itself in protests, closing border, breaking off trade…”
Mr. Stevenson considers that Uzbekistan’s concern about water supply is unfounded.
In the meantime, the Environmental Movement of Uzbekistan on June 22 sent a letter to the European Parliament Speaker Jerzy Buzek to complain about MEP Struan Stevenson who has come out in favor of the construction of the Roghun HPP in Tajikistan. The movement complained believes that Stevenson made “controversial” statements in favor of the Roghun project. Uzbek environmentalists claim that the ill-considered Soviet-era policy to control the natural flow of Central Asia”s Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers by building gigantic hydroelectric plants in the 1970-80s is the reason for the drying up of the Aral Sea. The movement said people living in the Aral Sea region were worried about the construction of the Roghun plant because this project would sharply reduce the supply of drinking water from the Amu Darya, affecting 18 million people living along the river.
The movement also warned the European Parliament that the plant is to be built in an area of significant seismic activity, where strong earthquakes may fracture the dam, resulting in “12 billion cubic meters of water inflicting irreparable damage to Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan”.
