Water Resources of Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan are the five former Soviet nations that makeup Central Asia. Regardless of whether the nations are linked together by language family, location, horseman-nomadic customs, or having the “stan” suffix, west China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, south-central Russia, or Mongolia may be included. Due to the prevalence of Turkic languages spoken there, the primary five Central Asian countries as well as western China are frequently referred to as Turkestan (Turkistan). Another word is “Inner Asia.” Tibet or Manchuria are included, with a special emphasis on those who have a horseman-nomadic custom.
There are hardly many rivers in Turkmenistan. All rivers are located in border regions, where there are few high mountains without glaciers, little rainfall, and arid conditions. As a result, many of the rivers were shallow and frequently dry up by the middle of the summer. The Amu Darya is the one exception; it originates in the Tajikistani and Afghani highlands and flows north of Turkmenistan. Most rivers, however, are heavily utilized for agriculture, which depletes water supplies—which are already limited without irrigation—and causes some of them to never reach their previous riverbed.
Sources of drinkable water: A) enhanced: 89.1% of urban residents; 53.7% of rural residents; 71.1%; A) undeveloped: 10.9% of urban residents; 46.3% of rural residents; 28.9% of the population. Accessibility to sanitation facilities: A) enhanced: 99.1% of the population overall; 100% of the population in urban areas; 98.2% of the population in rural areas. B) Urban areas with no population improvement l Rural residents make up 1.8% of the population; overall, they make up 0.9%.
19,910 square kilometers of land are watered. 24.77 cubic kilometers of renewable water supplies overall. Total annual freshwater withdrawal: 27.95 cubic kilometers annual per-person extraction: 5,752 cubic meters.
Rivers of Turkmenistan
- Principal Rivers: The Amu Darya, the river located in Central Asia with an overall length of 2,540 kilometers from its furthest tributary, is the most significant. After passing through northern Turkmenistan, the Amu Darya runs eastward, forming the southern boundaries of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The Tejen (1,124 kilometers), Murgap (852 kilometers), and Atrek are further significant rivers (660 kilometers).
- Atrek is the sole river of Turkmenistan that empties into the Caspian Sea. It is nourished by rain and snow from Kopet Dag hill, and as a result, even by end of the spring, it is deep. Additionally, the majority of the flowing water is used to irrigate the nearby farmland.
- One of Central Asia’s two biggest and most significant rivers is the Amu Darya (the other one is the Syr Darya). It springs from glaciers inside the Tien Shan as well as Pamir ranges, flows along the boundary between Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and then drains into the Aral Sea. From the Amu Darya, the Kara-kum Canals travel through the heart of the nation for 650 miles. Few additional rivers exist. The little Tejen as well as Murgab Rovers trickle out of the Iranian-bordering mountain, although they don’t travel very far before being absorbed by the desert.
- Turkmenistan is dependent on the Amu Darya. It enters the nation on the east as well as travels northwest before becoming a natural barrier between Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan a short distance later. The Amu Darya feeds the Karakum Canal, also known as Karakumdarya.It travels for 1445 kilometers, passing through Mary, Tedjen, and Serdar before arriving in Balkanabad. The waters of the Amu Darya are taken up by the waterway on average about 45%. The Kunyadarya channel, which passes close to the fabled Kunya-Urgench remains, is also present in the lower Amu Darya.
- The Tedjen and Murgab, two rather significant rivers, create a delta of channels and ditches that irrigate areas of agricultural fields in addition to all the rivers already mentioned. Those rivers’ water would run into the Amu Darya if it weren’t used for agriculture.
- Even thousands of kilometers from their origins, Central Asian rivers are frequently dirty and dark. This is due to the water’s stranded “yellowish-grey clay, or loess,” which is exceedingly fine and persistently floats in the water.
- Those minerals, according to one geologist, were “produced by the breakdown of porphyry rock transported by the winds of the mountain areas in the shape of very dust and sand” and “it eventually settled and constructed either by Central Asian plateau.”
Plan to Build Two Reservoirs for Strategies Reserves
A large pit is being constructed in the Lebap velayat, in the southwest of Turkmenistan, for a reservoir that will have a 3,85 billion m3 volume. According to the “Neutral Turkmenistan” daily, the additional reservoir, which will be dedicated after the fifteenth anniversary of freedom, is being built next to the biggest reservoir in the nation.
In addition, it should be mentioned that the reservoir designated for the country’s fifteenth anniversary of freedom is linked to the Karakum River as well as the Amu Darya via canals, acting as a filter to remove sand and silt that are present in high concentrations in Amu Darya water.
The banks of the reservoir-associated bulk dams, which are positioned along the perimeter of the watershed, are continuously built up to ensure that the reservoir retains its functionality during natural siltation.
According to the study, “hydraulic engineers created a strategy for its renewal across several phases to proceed the life of the biggest water storage unit in the country, whose construction started in the 1980s of the previous century and the initial start-up complicated was initiated at the finish of the last century.
The vault’s total area as well as moisture storage capacity will be increased by dramatically raising the soil mounds surrounding it. There are immediate plans to build a third pit in this area.
It is currently in the design stage of work. It is emphasized that such three enormous reservoirs will improve the nation’s water supply shortly.
