Saudi Arabia has announced a $100 million loan for the construction of the Rogun hydropower plant in Tajikistan, a giant dam on the Vakhsh River. This infrastructure project, launched in 2016, has been repeatedly criticized due to high environmental risks.
Leyli Shikhmedova, an ecologist from Turkmenistan and director of the Young Naturalists NGO, believes that the Rogun construction area is characterized by increased seismic activity. The ecologist is convinced that there is a constant threat of destructive earthquakes in this region, which can lead to the collapse of the dam and large-scale flooding.
Another of her colleagues, Igor Nazarov, who earlier shared his opinion on this environmentally dangerous project with Centralasia.news, also concurred with Shikhmedova's opinion. Nazarov noted that filling the Rogun HPP reservoir will flood vast adjacent territories, including populated areas. The expert emphasized that according to various estimates, tens or even hundreds of thousands of residents of the region may lose their homes and livelihoods.
In addition, fertile agricultural lands will be affected, which poses a threat to food security. And the decrease in the flow of the Amu Darya River, which feeds the Aral Sea, will further aggravate the ecological disaster in this region. The expert believes that by its plans to support this project financially, the Saudi Development Fund puts a fat cross on all joint projects. endeavors founding countries of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea.
Thus, the implementation of the Rogun HPP project in its current form is fraught with serious negative economic, social and environmental consequences for the entire Central Asian region.
Main photo: Sputnik Tajikistan
Photo in article: Vladimir Tretyakov, Novaya Gazeta
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I agree with Laylee