Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan's water and energy security could be threatened as the Ruslovoye border reservoir is projected to be silted entirely by 2040.
That is the view of the Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC), founded in 2001 by the region's five countries, the European Union, and the UN Development Programme.
The report refers to the Tuyamuyun hydro unit, a transboundary hydropower facility of a strategic nature located along the Amu Darya River on the border between the two countries.
"This facility provides residents of Dashoguz region (Turkmenistan) and Khorezm region and Karakalpakstan (Uzbekistan) with drinking water and electricity, as well as irrigation water for 1.2 million hectares of land in the two countries (425,000 hectares in Turkmenistan and 779,300 hectares in Uzbekistan)".
Siltation reduces the ability of the hydro unit to generate electricity and supply water from the Amu Darya River to the reservoirs that provide drinking and irrigation water to the population of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
An investment proposal for the treatment and utilization of reservoir sediments would be prepared for a particular project.
Experts say that sediments from the Rusloe reservoir could be commercially valuable for producing micro-fertilizers, bio humus, building bricks, pure cobalt mining, and other beneficiation activities.
Credits: Eziz Boyarov, Ashgabat
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