Energy-poor Tajikistan opens new hydroelectric power plants, setting off protests in Uzbekistan, which is downstream, and where many fear loss in water supplies for the population and agriculture. The Central Asian nations are in a tug-of-war, blaming each other and threatening retaliation.

Tashkent (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Tajik President Imomali Rahmon and Iran’s Energy Minister Majid Namjou attended a ceremony on 28 November to mark the start of the construction of the Sangtuda-2 hydropower plant, on the Vakhsh River, a project that is funded in part by Iran. Uzbekistan has objected to the development, arguing that it would negatively affect its agriculture by reducing the amount of water reaching its territory.

Energy-poor Tajikistan has many rivers. With the rise in energy costs, it has launched a number of hydroelectric projects in order to secure cheap and clean energy. The Sangtuda-1 hydropower station (pictured) has been already operating since July 2009.

Uzbek leaders fear the river might be blocked or deviated. They insist that their country, which is downstream from Tajikistan, needs fresh water from the Vakhsh.

Rahmon has countered that Tajikistan’s hydropower projects would not have a significant impact on the region’s environmental balance or water supplies, and that his country has the right to use its rivers.

The controversy is not new. In recent years, Uzbekistan has boycotted Tajikistan’s hydroelectric power plant upstream at Rogun, holding up hundreds of Tajikistan-bound freight cars at the Uzbek border this year. Uzbek leader Islam Karimov also regularly claims that Rogun’s construction would be economically and environmentally catastrophic for downstream countries.

For its part, Tajikistan has complained that its natural gas-rich neighbour has always charged high prices. Two days after the Sangtuda ceremony, Uzbekistan’s state gas distributor sent a letter to its Tajik counterpart saying that unless Tajikistan immediately repaid its US$ 1.6 million debt, Uzbekistan would have no choice but to cut off Tajikistan’s gas supplies. The upstream country relies on Uzbekistan for up to 95 per cent of its needs.

Neither side has shied away from propaganda. On 5 November,  Tajik government officials announced that trade between the two countries had fallen almost 65 per cent over the 2009 level for the same period. Two weeks later, the chairman of the Uzbek State Committee on Environmental Protection, Narimon Umarov, claimed that Tajikistan’s prominent and energy-hungry TALCO aluminium plant had caused US$ 282 million in “environmental damages” to neighbouring districts in Uzbekistan. He also predicted that Rogun would inflict US$ 17.8 billion in damage on Uzbekistan during its first five years of operation.

However, the row is much more than words. Uzbekistan unilaterally closed a border checkpoint on 1 November between its Samarkand Province and the remote Zarafshan Valley in Tajikistan, effectively severing the region from the outside world for the winter months since mountain passes from the valley into the rest of Tajikistan are closed for months at a time because of snow.

There is no easy solution. Tajikistan could give up the dams but only if it gets cheap gas; conversely, the Uzbeks claim that water is a common good.

In any case, the two countries are paying a price for Soviet-styled organisation, which was designed to accentuate interdependence among Soviet republics. In Tajikistan’s case, this has meant limited local energy supplies.

• uzbekistan
• tajikitan
• iran
• energy
• hydropower
• river
• farming
• cotton