The Karakum Canal (Qaraqum Canal, Kara Kum Canal, Garagum Canal; , ''Karakumskiy Kanal'', , , ) in

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...

is one of the largest

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...

and water supply

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface ...

s in the world. Started in 1954, and completed in 1988, it is

navigable A body of water, such as a river, canal or lake, is navigable if it is deep, wide and calm enough for a water vessel (e.g. boats) to pass safely. Navigability is also referred to in the broader context of a body of water having sufficient under ...

over much of its length, and carries of water annually from the Amu-Darya River across the

Karakum Desert The Karakum Desert ( ; rus, Каракумы, p=kərɐˈkumɨ), also spelt and (; ), is a desert in Central Asia. The name refers to the shale-rich sand beneath the surface. It occupies about 70 percent, or roughly , of Turkmenistan. The po ...

in Turkmenistan. The canal opened up huge new tracts of land to agriculture, especially to

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

monoculture In agriculture, monoculture is the practice of growing one crop species in a field at a time. Monocultures increase ease and efficiency in planting, managing, and harvesting crops short-term, often with the help of machinery. However, monocultur ...

heavily promoted by the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, and supplying

Ashgabat Ashgabat (Turkmen language, Turkmen: ''Aşgabat'') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Turkmenistan. It lies between the Karakum Desert and the Kopet Dag, Kopetdag mountain range in Central Asia, approximately 50 km (30 ...

with a major source of water. The canal is also a major factor leading to the

Aral Sea The Aral Sea () was an endorheic lake lying between Kazakhstan to its north and Uzbekistan to its south, which began shrinking in the 1960s and had largely dried up into desert by the 2010s. It was in the Aktobe and Kyzylorda regions of Kazakhst ...

environmental disaster An environmental disaster or ecological disaster is defined as a catastrophic event regarding the natural environment that is due to human activity.Jared M. Diamond, '' Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed'', 2005 This point distingu ...

. The Soviet regime planned to at some time extend the canal to the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...

History

The current Karakum Canal was not the first major attempt to bring the Amu-Darya water to the Karakums. In the early 1950s, construction began on the Main Turkmen Canal (), which would start at a much more northerly location (near

Nukus Nukus ( / / ; / / ) is the sixth-largest city in Uzbekistan and the capital of the autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan. The population of Nukus as of 1 January 2022 was 329,100. The Amu Darya river passes west of the city. Administratively, ...

), and run southwest toward Krasnovodsk. The canal would have used around 25 percent of the Amu-Darya's water. The works were abandoned after the death of

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

, the current Karakum Canal route being chosen instead.Nikolaĭ Gavrilovich Kharin, "Vegetation Degradation in

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

Under the Impact of Human Activities". Pp. 56-58. Springer, 2002.
On Google Books
/ref> Reservoirs such as

Hanhowuz Reservoir Hanhowuz, also known as Khauz-Khan, is a reservoir in Ahal Province of southeastern Turkmenistan. The M37 highway passes nearby and the town of Denizhan (formerly called Hanhowuz) stands on the northwestern shore, with the city of Tejen not too ...

were created to help regulate it.

Important cities

Bereket Bereket, formerly Gazanjyk or ''Kazandzhik'' ( or gɑˈzɑnd͡ʒik), is a List of cities in Turkmenistan, city in Balkan Province in western Turkmenistan. Bereket is the administrative centre of Bereket District. Bereket is located in an oasis ...

Serdar Serdar may refer to * Serdar (given name) * Serdar (surname) Serdar is a surname of the following notable people: * Can Serdar (born 1996), German-Turkish football midfielder * Emerîkê Serdar (1935–2018), Kurdish-Yezidi writer from Armenia * I ...

External links

Google Earth view of part of the Karakum Canal, and desert area irrigated by it
(annotated in Russian alphabet)

References

{{Authority control Canals in Turkmenistan Buildings and structures built in the Soviet Union Irrigation canals Cotton Agriculture in Turkmenistan Irrigation in Turkmenistan Interbasin transfer Canals opened in 1988 Amu Darya