Uznews.net – Tajikistan’s plans to build hydroelectric stations on its rivers raise alarm in downstream Central Asian countries – Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.

One of these stations is the Rogun project on the Vakhsh river which has been mothballed since Soviet times. It is expected to have a 330-metre-tall damn and its reservoir to contain 12.5 billion cu. m. of water which would not reach Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and the Aral Sea. The station with a design capacity of 3,600 MW is expected to cost $2bn.

There are proposals to abandon this project in favour of using water of Lake Sarez which was created as a result of an earthquake in the early 20th century to generate electricity.

The height of the Usoy dam which blocked the Murgab river to accumulate water in Sarez is 570 metres. The lake contains 17 billion cu. m. of water.

The lake threatens to destroy this natural dam any moment, flooding downstream territories up to the Aral Sea.

There are several advantages of using the lake for power generation: no need to accumulate water in the Rogun reservoir, stealing it from the Aral Sea, whereas releasing up to 8 billion cu. m. of water from Sarez and decrease the water level will benefit the sea and ease pressure on the dam; a threat of the dam’s destruction will be eliminated; costs of building a power station on Sarez will be lower than those of Rogun.

The Sarez project will also help develop Tajikistan’s underdeveloped regions and solve water issues in the region.