Main Turkmen Canal

The Main Turkmen Canal was a large-scale irrigation project in Soviet Turkmenistan. The canal was intended to transport water from the Amu Darya river to Krasnovodsk (now Türkmenbaşy), a city in Turkmenistan on the coast of the Caspian Sea. The canal was going to bring the water to the city along the course of the ancient, dried Uzboy River bed.

Map of Turkmenistan

Idea

The building of canals and channels for the irrigation of Turkmenistan began in the 1930s. In 1929, the Bassaga-Kerkinskiy Canal was completed at a length of 100 km. The development of the outlet design for the Amu Darya began in 1932. The design was to bring water from the Amu Darya across Turkmenistan and to the coast of the Caspian Sea, all in order to irrigate the Karakum Desert. The project was supported by Hydrologist V, Tsinzerling, who estimated the volume of water taken from the river to be around 17-35 cu km of water, which, according to estimations, should not have injured the economy of Uzbekistan or the ecology of the Aral Sea. It was intended to fill Sarykamysskoe Lake and to take from 30 to 50 kubic kilometers per year for 4 to 8 years. This version was approved by the State Planning Committee of the USSR in 1932. The second plan was chosen. The length of the canal was assumed to be more than 1200 kilometers, beginning from Takhiatash, a town/city in Uzbekistan, then extended 10 km from the town of Nukus to Krasnovodsk which is a city on the Caspian Coast of Turkmenistan. However, the discharge of the water into the Caspian Sea was not planned.

The Canal

A system of weirs, sluices, reservoirs, hydroelectric power plants, diverters and conduits, with a length of more than 1000 kilometers was planned along the route of the canal. At the beginning of the canal at Takhiatash, Uzbekistan, there was an enormous weir built which had to be combined with the hydroelectric power plant. 25 percent of the water from the Amu Darya was to be drained into the canal in order to drain the Aral Sea. With the level of the Aral Sea lowered, the intention was to use the earth, which arose with the retreat of the sea, in agriculture, but the salt of the lower reaches of the Amu Darya river had to be lowered according to calculations.

The purpose of the canal was cotton growing, mastery of the new earth in the Karakum Desert, and also later, navigation from the Volga River to the Amu Darya. It was planned that the use of ten thousand dump trucks, bulldozers and excavators would be necessary to build the canal. The width of the canal was planned to be more than 100 meters, the depth to be 6–7 meters. There was another projected 10 thousand kilometers of main and distributive canals, two thousand reservoirs and three hydroelectric power plants each producing 100 thousand kilowatts. Construction of the canal was intended to be finished by 1957.

Construction

Building began after the decision of the Council of Ministers in September 1950. The construction was based out of Urgench (which at that time was part of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic). They chose Urgench because it is where the railroad lines reached to. November 1950, construction workers approached the building site of the worker camps that would hold 2000 people. In December, they laid the new city of Takhiatash on the Amu Darya's west side. Before the city was built, on that site, stood two shelters that provided barge haulers protection from foul weather. When the city was first being constructed there were two camps beginning to be built in the city for 1500 prisoners or people.

Massive loads of goods from the entire country began to enter into Takhiatash, and according to recollections kept, the goods were stored very poorly. Substantial parts of the goods were considered un-usable because of the poor storage. In 1951, several camps and economic objects were built. On June 15, 1952 the railroad from Takhiatash to Chardzhou (now, Türkmenabat) was opened. Infrastructure for the development of the city was created, searching expeditions were organized and aviation was connected. The number of workers during the construction is estimated to be around 10 thousand people, where more than half of them were prisoners.

End of an Idea

In 1953, after Stalin's death, the building of the Main Turkmen Canal was stopped. Instead, in 1954, the construction of the Qaraqum Canal began; running along a different route far to the south, it eventually reached a length of 1300 kilometers and irrigated a substantial part of Turkmenistan. The Qaraqum Canal still remains the most important canal of Turkmenistan.

References

• A. Zholdasov - on the ruins of great building. History of the main Turkmen channel Journey along the asleep river Of gladyshev
• A.I. K. Sarybaeva “Rolle irrigation in the social and economic development Of karakalpakstana”
• Modern Times By H. Scheel, Bertold Spuler, G. Jaschke, F R C Bagley, H. Braun, H. Kahler, W. M. Halle, T. Koszinowski