THE GREAT AMU DARYA

INTRODUCTION

The Amu Darya (lit. "Amu River") is formed at the junction of the Vakhsh and Panj Rivers in Tajikistan and flows 2,400km to the watershed of the Aral Sea.

The river historically has been regarded as the boundary between Iran and the Turan (the ancient Iranian name for Central Asia), literally meaning "the land of the Tur", essentially referring to those nomadising beyond the Oxus and Jaxartes rivers, both Turkic and Eastern Iranian peoples (Sogdians and Khwarezmians) who lived in the region.

In classical antiquity, the river was known as the Ōxus in Latin and Ὦξος Oxos in Greek — the name of the largest tributary of the river. In Middle Persian the river is known as Wehrōd (lit. "good river").

Medieval Arabic language sources call the river Jayhoun (جيحون) which is derived from Gihon the name of the second river mentioned in the second chapter of the Biblical Book of Genesis (one of four rivers said to be issuing out of the Garden of Eden).

The name Amu is said to have come from the city of Āmul, now known as Türkmenabat.

The beginning of irrigated agriculture in the region dates back to the 6th-7th centuries B.C. and coincides with flourishing the most ancient civilization where irrigation was a major decisive factor of historical and socio-economic development.

The river's drainage lies in the area between the former empires of Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great, although they occurred at much different times. One southern route of the Silk Road ran along part of the Amu Darya northwestward from Termez before going westwards to the Caspian Sea.

DESCRIPTION

The river's total length is 2,400 kilometres (1,500 mi) and its drainage basin totals 534,739 square kilometres (206,464 sq mi) in area, providing a mean discharge of around 97.4 cubic kilometres (23.4 cu mi) of water per year. The river is navigable for over 1,450 kilometres (900 mi). All of the water comes from the high mountains in the south where annual precipitation can be over 1,000 mm (39 in). Even before large-scale irrigation began, high summer evaporation meant that not all of this discharge reached the Aral Sea - though there is some evidence the large Pamir glaciers provided enough melt water for the Aral to overflow during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries A.D.

The main source of the Amu Darya is the Pamir River, which emerges from Lake Zorkul in the Pamir Mountains, and flows west to Qila-e Panja, where it joins the Wakhan River to form the Panj River. Another source is an ice cave at the end of the Wakhjir valley, in the Wakhan Corridor, nestled in the Pamir Mountains, near the border with Pakistan. A glacier turns into the Wakhan River and joins the Pamir River about 50 kilometres downstream.

The Panj River forms the border of Afghanistan and Tajikistan. It then flows west to Ishkashim where it turns north and then east north-west, It subsequently forms the border of Afghanistan and Uzbekistan for about 200 kilometres, passing Termez and the Afghanistan-Uzbekistan Friendship Bridge. It then delineates the border of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan for another 100 kilometres before it flows into Turkmenistan at Atamyrat. As the Amudarya, it flows across Turkmenistan south to north, passing Türkmenabat, and forms the border of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan from Halkabat.

Amu Darya (Near Urgench)

It is then split into many waterways that are used to form the river delta before joining the Aral Sea, passing Urgench, Daşoguz (formerly Daşhowuz) and Nukus.

THE CHANGING COURSE OF THE AMU DARYA

It is believed that the Amu Darya's course across the Kara-Kum Desert has gone through several major shifts over the past several thousand years.

Historical records state that in different periods, the Amu Darya river flowed into the Aral Sea (from the south), the Caspian Sea (from the east) or both, similar to the Syr Darya. These changes in course have also been influenced by climate change and changes in the state of the environment in the region. The Aral Sea over time has similarly had a number of periodical changes of its water area, expansions followed by withdrawals.

Evolution of periodic fluctuations of the Aral sea water territory during 10000 BC - 1990 AC

Reference: UNESCO. The Aral Sea Basin. Division of Water Sciences,1999.

For much of the time, the most recent period being in the 1200s to the late 1500s, it is believed that  the Amu Darya emptied into both the Aral and the Caspian Seas, the latter via a large distributary called the Uzboy River. The Uzboy splits off from the main channel just south of the Amudarya Delta. The flow through the two branches being more or less equal, but in some flood years most of the Amu Darya's flow split to the west and flowed into the Caspian.

People began to settle along the lower Amu Darya and the Uzboy in the 5th century A.D., establishing a thriving chain of agricultural lands, towns, and cities. The river was impounded in about 985 A.D. at the bifurcation of the forks by the massive Gurganj Dam, which diverted water to the Aral.

The dam was destroyed by Genghis Khan's troops in 1221, and the Amu Darya shifted its flows more or less equally between the main stem and the Uzboy. But in the 1700s, the river again turned north, flowing into the Aral Sea, a path it has taken since. Less and less water flowed down the Uzboy until, in the 1720s, the river's surface flow completely dried up.

In the 1950s and 1960s, much of the waters of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya were diverted to irrigate extensive cotton fields in the Central Asian plain. Before this time, water from the rivers was already being used for agriculture, but not on this massive scale. The Qaraqum Canal, Karshi Canal, and Bukhara Canal were among the larger of the irrigation diversions built. A new Turkmen Canal was also proposed to divert water along the dry Uzboy River bed into central Turkmenistan, but was never built.

The use of a high percentage of the water in the Amu River for irrigation (some 97% on average)since the late 1950s has been the main contributing factor to the current shrinkage being experienced by the Aral.

Source: Wikipedia  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amu_Darya

Map: Source  see http://enrin.grida.no/htmls/aralsoe/aralsea/english/arsea/map6.htm

Threats to the Aral Basin

Irrigation/Drainage canals in the delta

Alongside the Amu Darya are a dense series of irrigation and drainage ditches which are visible in the adjacent photo, The waterways clearly visible due to the reflection of sunlight off the surface of the water. The Amu Darya flows to the northwest from the bottom left hand corner of this photograph to the top providing life-giving water to crops on the Amu Darya Delta (in dark green). It originates many hundreds of kilometers to the southeast in the more temperate Pamir Mountains, flowing across the arid Turanian plain to eventually run into drainage channels that flow eventually into the Aral Seas.

The Amu Darya before entering the Aral Sea forms a vast delta, which dominates these images.

Water is utilized intensively in the delta to irrigate cotton and other crops such as rice. The delta continue to lose arable land to soil salinisation as a result of rising groundwater levels that accompany the intensive crop irrigation.

Further as a consequence of the diversion of vast quantities of freshwater from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers for irrigation the water volume of the Aral Sea has dropped by more than 90% in the last 50 years.

Aral Basin

The Amu Darya and Syr Darya combined flow is equal the Nile and accounts for some 90 percent of water use in Central Asia. Long-term average flow is the Amu Darya is 79 cubic km / year and 37 cubic km / year in the Syr Darya.

Water flowing in the two rivers comes almost entirely from glaciers in the Pamir Mountains and Tian Shan, which, standing above the surrounding arid plain, collect atmospheric moisture which otherwise would probably have escaped somewhere else. Without its mountain water sources, the rivers would contain little water because it rarely rains in the lowlands that characterize most of the river.

Whilst water inputs (general precipitation and glacial meltwater) come from near the river's source in the mountains of Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. It is the countries downstream Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan that most depend on its regular spring and summer water discharges for their agriculture.

Continued Dam Construction - A Looming Problem

Over the last few years, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have increasingly hoarded water in their alpine reservoirs to generate electricity in the winter.

Tajikistan

In Tajikistan the Nurek Dam an icon of 1960s Soviet infrastructure ingenuity is at over 300 m the tallest Dam in the world. It located not far from Dushambe the capital of Tajikistan fuels nine hydroelectric turbines producing 3.0 gigwatts, or 40% of Central Asia’s power needs and 98% of Tajikistan’s.

Just up-river from Nurek is another dam project, Rogun, that has been in the works – and then stalled due to major geological problems *1 and then the collapse of the Soviet Union and then the Civil War - for over 30 years.

Rogun Dam Site

Despite widespread opposition by its neighbours the Tajik Government has started raising 1.4 billion dollars from Tajik citizens* 2 to complete the dam. It is however estimated that for the project to be delivered in full they would need to spend something like double that amount. As Tajikistan’s whole GDP is less than 2 billion a year the project will likely require significant overseas funding if it is ever to be completed.

Notes:

1. Soviet Geologists worried that the base of the dam is very fragile and water seepage undermining the base was a very real possibility, some believed that even a small earthquake could cause a catasrophe. Should any accidents occur during or after the construction of the Rogun dam, it could flood large areas of arable land as far afield as Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan.

2. The Tajik government has been seeking to collect funds for the construction of Rogun through the issue of stock (shares) and has made it mandatory for citizens and businesses to purchase them. The stock price ranges 100, 500, 1000 and 5000 somoni ($23 to $1,150) (www.centrasia.ru, December 24, 2009). Citizens who buy shares also will be allowed to turn any funds they have generated outside of the official system (ie. money from the black economy) into legal income.

Nurek Dam








Recently the Uzbek Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyaev sent a letter to his Tajik counterpart warning Dushanbe of potential damage by the Roghun power plant to Central Asia's "frail environmental balance. He called on Tajikistan to conduct a thorough review of the Soviet-era project, designed "some 40 years ago” based on "outdated” technical expertise. He pointed out that Tajikistan has to examine the possible impact of the Rogun plant on Amudarya water volumes, "as the very survival of millions of people” depends on it. Further he mentioned that the Rogun power plant is located in an area with a track record of "several major earthquakes of up to magnitude 10.0.”

Kyrgyzstan

In Kyrgystan another Soviet era dinosaur is also being restarted. The former Kyrgiz Government  pushed ahead with the Kambarata Dams and hydropower stations projects (I & II) on the Naryn River. Again this dam site is located in a seismic area and is also being developed without proper planning or consideration for the rights of the downstream countries. As it now stands with the country now almost totally broke revealed after the recent turmoil, it has only 16 million Euro in its treasury, so  like Tajikistan it will not be able to complete the construction of the planned dams without external financial and technological support. Given this Kyrgyzstan would be financially much better off using its ample coal resources for their energy needs.

Afghanistan

In Afghanistan the US government also has plans to build more dams within the Amu darya catchment. The fertile plains of the Amu Darya basin, account for about 40% of mountainous Afghanistan’s irrigated lands. Whilst it is reasonable for the existing infrastructure to be upgraded, new irrigation projects are not needed. One major driver is that the far north of Afghanistan is one of the very few safe areas that the U.S aid agencies can operate. Further such Irrigation projects as they can generate income and be able to service US loans which of course are tied to providing work for US agribusiness and construction companies. Sadly the cost to others downstream is unlikley to be considered after all in truth the US has little real interest in Central Asia.

New Afghan Dam in the Amu Darya catchment area

Conclusion

The three countries affected downstream are understandably very worried about these new dam projects that will further disrupt the water flow and increase evaporation and therefore considerably effect an already fragile agriculture cycle in the lower aral basin. The loss of vast quantities of water to evapouration and the retention of water for hydroelectricity generation is of particularly concern to Uzbekistan whose western areas (particularly those of Khoresm and Karakalpakstan) and also that of Turkmenistan whose northern areas, are already very water stressed.

They fear that these dams will not only curb water flows down a waterway on which their agriculture largely depends, but that they will only release water in winter, when the there is the greatest need to generate electricity, rather than storing it for the warmer seasons when they need to irrigate their fields.

Central Asia is already facing environmental problems in the aftermath of the Aral "catastrophe.” The inland sea has almost dried up over the past four decades after the Amudarya and other rivers that fed the sea were diverted by Soviet era irrigation projects, by building more dams in the catchment will cause even more problems to millions of people downstream.

The current position of Uzbekistan is that these hydroelectric schemes should not go ahead unless a proper study is carried out into their environmental impacts and human cost throughout the region.

The World Bank, IMF, ADB and others should now follow Russia's lead and not participate in new energy projects in Central Asia unless the concerns of all states in the region are considered.

Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan need broad based development not expensive dams if they are going to solve their deep rooted structural problems.

Karakalpak Economy - A Brief Summary

The Republic of Karakalpakstan is a sovereign state within the Republic of Uzbekistan. Its territory is 166,600 sq. km (37% of the total area) and the population is 1.6 mln. people (approximately 5.6% of the total population), however, its GDP is only 2.4% of that of Uzbekistan. It is populated mainly by Karakalpaks in the North and Uzbeks in the South. Karakalpakstan consists of 14 districts.

Karakalpakstan has its own Constitution, which is in line with that of Uzbekistan. The state system of the Republic is based upon the constitutional division of powers between legislative, executive and judiciary branches. The Jokargi Kenes (parliament) is the legislative body of the Republic, while the Council of Ministers is the highest executive body.

Geographically, the territory of Karakalpakstan consists of the north-western part of the Kyzyl Kum Desert, the south-eastern part of the Usturt Plateau and the Amu Darya River delta, as well as the southern part of the Aral Sea. The Amu Darya is the only river that flows through the given area. There are a variety of natural resources such as gold, uranium, gas, iron, phosphorus, bentonite and kaolin clay, salt, marble, and granite. Climate is typically continental with dry and hot summers and cold winters. The traditional occupation of the Karakalpaks is livestock farming, agriculture and fishing.

On the east Karakalpakstan occupies the western half of the Kyzylkum Desert, a vast plain covered with shifting sands. The central part consists of the valley and delta of the Amu Darya (river), a low-lying area intersected by watercourses and canals. On the west the republic includes the southeastern part of the Ustyurt Plateau, a slightly undulating area characterized by flat summits rising to some 958 feet (292 m) above sea level. The climate is marked by cool winters and hot summers. Average rainfall is only 3 to 4 inches (75 to 100 mm).

About one-half of the population is urban. Nukus, the capital, Khŭjayli, Beruniy, Takhiatosh, Chimbay, Tŭrtkŭl, and Altykyl are the chief settlements.

The economy is predominantly agricultural. The industrial sector, while limited, includes light manufacturing, refineries that process oil from nearby petroleum fields, several building-materials plants that utilize the limestone, gypsum, asbestos, marble, and quartzite of the area, and a power station in Takhiatosh.

The main sectors of the economy are agriculture (cotton, rice, melons, watermelons, vegetables, karakul sheep, and cattle) and industry (electricity and energy production, textile and food industry). Cotton reprocessing is the leading branch of industry.


The Cotton Crop

Cotton is cultivated along the Amu Darya and in its delta and is processed at Chimbay, Qŭnghirot, Beruniy, Takhtakupyr, Khŭjayli, and Mangit. A well-developed system of irrigation canals supplies water from the Amu Darya to the crops. Besides cotton, crops include alfalfa, rice, and corn (maize). Cattle and Karakul sheep are raised in the Kyzylkum Desert.

Transport facilities in the republic include a railway from Kungrad (Qŭnghirot) to Charjou (Chärjew) in Turkmenistan, motor roads that link several cities of the republic, and air connections with Moscow, Tashkent and Muynak. Area 63,900 square miles (165,600 square km). Pop. (2007 est.) 1,678,191.

Karakalpakstan has its own peculiarities which define the character of its economy and infrastructure. Low density of the population and vast areas of land significantly increase the cost of investments into its industrial, physical and social infrastructure. Remoteness of settlements, factories and SME enterprises also increases the cost of manufactured production due to additional expenses for delivery of raw materials, energy resources, water, electricity, and export of this production. All this accounts to a great extent for the ’closeness’ of the Karakalpak economy from neighbouring regions and countries.

Karakalpakstan has is own Constitution and Parliament (Jokargi Kenes) which rules the country. The government is headed by the Council of Ministers of Karakalpakstan.

The Republic of Karakalpakstan has significant mineral resources: natural gas, crude oil. granite, bentonite, kaolin, marble, phosphoric and erbium-doped metals deposits with a sprinkle of precious stones and metals. It also has the largest oil and gas deposits in Uzbekistan. About 20 of these deposits were discovered on the Ustyurt plateau. The estimated oil and gas resources on the Ustyurt plateau amount to 1,7 trillion cubic meters of gas and 1,7 billion tons of liquid hydrocarbons.

The most developed industries are the production of construction materials, agricultural production and processing and metalwork. There are also textile and foodstuff factories in the republic. The Tahiatash and Tyuyamuyunsk power plants completely satisfy the demands for electric power in the republic with enough over to supply the neighboring Khorezm region and Turkmenistan. The Republic also has wind and solar power resources.

Cotton and rice are the two dominant agricultural crops. Fruit, vegetables, potatoes and forage plants are also cultivated in this region. Cultivation is possible in irrigated areas only. Livestock is generally pastoral including karakul sheep, cattle, camels and horses.

The total length of tarred roads in the Republic is about 3000 km and the Chardjow-Kungrad-Beineu-Makat railway passes through Karakalpakstan on route from Central Asia to Russia.

The Academy of Sciences of Republic of Uzbekistan has established a branch in Karakalpakstan.

Source: http://mansurovs.com/Umid/Main/Uzbekistan/Regions/Karakalpakstan/karakalpakstan.html