Transboundary demonstration project between Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan
Transforming the challenge into opportunity: recycling the sediment to promote the transboundary cooperation and WEF security through innovative solutions
Central Asia is home to 280 water reservoirs which regulate seasonal and yearly river flow, ensuring hydropower generation, agricultural irrigation, water supply and flood protection. These reservoirs have been subject to intensive sedimentation exacerbated by the dominating mountainous relief, thereby limiting the potential benefits from the investment inflow into the sector and adversely affecting water consumers.
Most of the Central Asian reservoirs have transboundary impacts, such as the Tuyamuyun Hydroelectric Complex (THC). It is a transboundary water-energy facility that regulates the downstream flow of the Amudarya River and allocates water-energy resources between Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. It is located in Turkmenistan, but the ownership and management lies with Uzbekistan, who rents the land from Turkmenistan based on interstate legal agreements. The THC plays an indispensable role in water management and secures water resource allocation between the riparian countries. As such, it ensures:
- water supply to irrigated farmland in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan;
- power supply to Uzbekistan;
- drinking water supply to Khorezm Region and Republic of Karakalpakstan (Uzbekistan);
- highway and railway communications across the Amudarya River;
- regulation of seasonal hydro regime of the Amudarya;
- water discharge for the Tachiatashsk Hydro Complex (Uzbekistan);
- protection against stream-bank erosion of the Amudarya.
— Dr Sanjay Giri, river and reservoir sediment management specialist from Deltares.The reservoir sedimentation at the THC has resulted not only in a huge storage loss, but also in a high risk associated with flood passage and infrastructural safety. This problem needs to be addressed urgently.