Water Unites

Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan’s territory is covered for 80%
by the vast Karakum Desert. In the southwest,
along the border with Iran, and in the east,
along the border with Uzbekistan, lie some
mountain ranges. The cultivable area constitutes
between 4% and 14 % of the country.
Internal river runoff originating in the
country is negligible, with an estimated 1 km³
per year. There are only some small, internal
rivers in the Kopetdag mountains at the
B A S I C I N F O R M AT I O N
Total area
Irrigated land
Population (2011)
Population growth
Median age
Gross domestic product
per capita (2010)
488 100 km 2
18 000 km 2
5.1 mln
1.4%
25.5 years
$ 7500
country’s southern border. Small transboundary rivers are the Atrek flowing from Iran,
the Murghab from Afghanistan and the Tedzhen (flowing from Afghanistan through
Iran into Turkmenistan). The Amu Darya provides almost 90% of the country’s water
via the Karakum Canal, which is the largest and most important water infrastructure in
Turkmenistan. It runs from the border with Uzbekistan across the country to the western
regions near the Caspian Sea. With a length of more than 1 300 km, it is the longest
canal in the world. Further downstream in the north of the country, the oasis region of
Dashoguz is fed by the Tuyamuyun reservoir located at the border of Uzbek territory.
Furthermore, 18 smaller reservoirs were constructed mainly for irrigation purposes, with
a total capacity of 2.89 km³. The largest reservoir is the Hauz-Khan reservoir on the Karakum
Canal, with a capacity of 0.875 km³.
About 80 artificial drainage lakes were created by the outflow of salty drainage
waters from irrigated fields. The largest one is the Saragamysh Lake (8 km³), located
about 200 km southwest from the Aral Sea. It was formed in 1971 as a result of the flooding
of several small lakes in the Sarykamysh depression, which were periodically filled by
Amu Darya waters, and since then has become a large drainage water body, used as a discharge
collector of salty irrigation water. In 2009, the Turkmen government started the
construction of the Altyn Asyr Lake (Golden Age Lake), later renamed Grand Turkmen
Lake, in the Karashor salt depression in the northern part of the country (about 350 km
north of the capital Ashgabat). Old riverbeds and new canals with a total length of more
than 1 000 km are expected to carry drainage water from different parts of the country
that currently is discharged either back into the Amu Darya or into the Sarygamysh Lake.
Once filled, the Grand Turkmen Lake is expected to be 103 km long and 18.6 km wide,
with a capacity of 132 km³ and a surface of about 1 916 km². The government plans to
develop it into a recreational zone, with some of its waters used to irrigate new pastures
and orchards. However, experts have predicted the lake would have negative environmental
effects and would reduce return water flows into the Amu Darya.
Turkmenistan possesses the world’s fourth-largest reserves of natural gas and
hardly any arable land. Consequently, the economic significance of agriculture is limited
to 12% of the GDP (2009). However, more than half of the population lives in rural
areas, and 32% (2004) are employed in agriculture. As in the other Central Asian states,
40 Turkmenistan