The Main Turkmen Canal () was a large-scale

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 ...

project in the

Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic The Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Turkmenistan, the Turkmen SSR, TuSSR, Turkmenistan, or Turkmenia, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union located in Central Asia existed as a republic from 1925 to 199 ...

. The canal was intended to transport water from the

Amu Darya The Amu Darya ( ),() also shortened to Amu and historically known as the Oxus ( ), is a major river in Central Asia, which flows through Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. Rising in the Pamir Mountains, north of the Hindu Ku ...

river to Krasnovodsk (now Türkmenbaşy), a city 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 ...

on the coast of 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, ...

. The canal was going to use the course of the ancient dry Uzboy River bed. Turkmenistan-map

History

The building of canals and channels for irrigation in Turkmenistan began in the 1930s. In 1929, the Bassaga-Kerkinskiy Canal was completed at a length of 100 km. The development of the outlet design for the Amu Darya River began in 1932. The design was to bring water from the Amu Darya, across Turkmenistan to the coast of the Caspian Sea to irrigate 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 ...

. The project was supported by Hydrologist V. Tsinzerling, who estimated the volume of water taken from the river to be around , which, according to estimations, should not have injured the economy of

Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...

or the ecology of 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 ...

. It was intended to fill Sarykamysskoe Lake and to take from 30 to 50 cubic kilometers per year for 4 to 8 years. This version was approved by the State Planning Committee of the

USSR 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 ...

in 1932. The second plan was chosen. The length of the canal was to be more than 1200 kilometers, beginning from Takhiatash, a town/city in Uzbekistan, then extended 10 km from the town of Nukus to Krasnovodsk on the Caspian Coast of Turkmenistan. However, the discharge of water into the

was not planned.

Plan

A system of

weir A weir or low-head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the water level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...

s, sluices,

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

s, hydroelectric power plants, diverters and conduits, over 1000 kilometers long was planned along the canal's route. At the beginning of the canal at Takhiatash, Uzbekistan an enormous weir was built which had to be combined with the hydroelectric power plant. 25 percent of the water from the Amu Darya was to be drained into the canal to drain the Aral Sea. With the level of the Aral Sea lowered, the intention was to use the exposed land for agriculture, but the

salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

content of the lower reaches of the Amu Darya river had to be lowered according to calculations. The purpose of the canal was

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 ...

growing, mastery of the new earth in the Karakum Desert, and later, navigation from the

Volga River The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...

to the Amu Darya. The use of ten thousand

dump truck A dump truck, known also as a dumping truck, dump lorry or dumper lorry or a dumper for short, is used for transporting materials (such as dirt, gravel, or demolition waste) for construction as well as coal. A typical dump truck is equipped ...

bulldozer A bulldozer or dozer (also called a crawler) is a large tractor equipped with a metal #Blade, blade at the front for pushing material (soil, sand, snow, rubble, or rock) during construction work. It travels most commonly on continuous tracks, ...

s and

excavator Excavators are heavy equipment (construction), heavy construction equipment primarily consisting of a backhoe, boom, dipper (or stick), Bucket (machine part), bucket, and cab on a rotating platform known as the "house". The modern excavator's ...

s was anticipated for construction. The width of the

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 ...

was to be more than 100 meters, and a depth of 6–7 meters. There was another projected 10,000 kilometers of main and distribution canals, 2,000 reservoirs and three hydroelectric plants, each producing 100,000 kilowatts. Construction was intended to be finished by 1957.

Construction

Building began after the decision of the

Council of Ministers Council of Ministers is a traditional name given to the supreme Executive (government), executive organ in some governments. It is usually equivalent to the term Cabinet (government), cabinet. The term Council of State is a similar name that also m ...

in September 1950. The construction was based in

Urgench Urgench (//, ; ; ) is a district-level city in western Uzbekistan. It is the capital of Xorazm Region. The estimated population of Urgench in 2021 was 145,000, an increase from 139,100 in 1999. It lies on the Amu Darya River and the Shavat canal ...

(at that time part of the

Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic The Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (, ), also known as Soviet Uzbekistan, the Uzbek SSR, UzSSR, or simply Uzbekistan and rarely Uzbekia, was a Republics of the Soviet Union, union republic of the Soviet Union. It was governed by the Communist ...

). Urgench was chosen for its rail access. In November 1950, construction workers started work at the building site of the camps that would hold 2000 people. In December, they laid the new city of Takhiatash on the Amu Darya's west side. When the city was first constructed there were two camps beginning to be built in the city for 1500 prisoners or people. Shipments of goods from the entire country entered Takhiatash, and according to recollections, were stored poorly, and substantial portions were considered unusable. In 1951, several camps and economic objects were built. On June 15, 1952 the railroad from Takhiatash to Chardzhou (now,

Türkmenabat Türkmenabat (), formerly Amul, Cärjew/Chardzhou (until 1924 and from 1940-1999), and Novy Chardzhuy (from 1927-1940), is the second-largest city in Turkmenistan and the administrative centre of Lebap Province. , it had a population of approxima ...

) was opened. Infrastructure for the development of the city was created, searching expeditions were organized and aviation was connected. The number of workers during construction is estimated at 10,000; more than half were prisoners.

Abandonment

Less than a month 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 ...

in 1953, construction of the Main Turkmen Canal ceased, alongside similar projects such as sections of the

Volga–Baltic Waterway The Volga–Baltic Waterway (), formerly known as the Mariinsk Canal System (), is a series of canals and rivers in Russia which link the Volga with the Baltic Sea via the Neva. Like the Volga–Don Canal, it is part of the Unified Deep Water ...

. These construction sites all used large amounts of

forced labour Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, or violence, including death or other forms of ...

and served as prestige projects in the eyes of the MVD which delivered the labourers; however, high-placed government officials realized that such costly projects had little economic use and that the forced labour system as a whole was unsustainable. It is likely that they did not dare to put criticism of the canals on the table while Stalin was alive. Lewin cites from In 1954 construction of the Qaraqum Canal began, along a route far to the south. It stretches 1300 km and irrigates a substantial part of

, and remains the most important canal in Turkmenistan. Construction of Qaraqum Canal drained the Amu Darya river and therefore enabled huge areas to be opened for cotton production. Nevertheless, it also resulted in the destruction of the native

riparian A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. In some regions, the terms riparian woodland, riparian forest, riparian buffer zone, riparian corridor, and riparian strip are used to characterize a ripar ...

tugay forests, and greatly diminished the inflow of water to the Aral Sea, which caused great ecological catastrophe.

References

Sources

* A. Zholdasov - On the Ruins of Great Building. History of the Main Turkmen Channel: Journey along the asleep river of Gladyshev * A.I. K. Sarybaeva "Role of irrigation in the social and economic development of Karakalpakstana"
Modern Times
By H. Scheel, Bertold Spuler, G. Jaschke, F R C Bagley, H. Braun, H. Kahler, W. M. Halle, T. Koszinowski * Frank Westerman, ''Engineers of the Soul''. Overlook Press, 2011. {{coord missing, Turkmenistan Buildings and structures built in the Soviet Union Canals in Turkmenistan Cancelled projects Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic Irrigation canals Irrigation in Turkmenistan Abandoned interbasin transfer Cancelled projects in the Soviet Union Amu Darya