Demolition of a dam

Forest and Bird, Issue 265, 1 August 1992, Page 7

Demolition of a dam

DEMOLITION of the notorious Kara-Bogaz-Gol dam in Turkmenistan began earlier this year. The dam which was built 12 years ago has been estimated to have created environmental damage costing well over 100 billion roubles. The dam was built to separate the land-locked Caspian Sea from the Kara-Bogaz-Gol, a huge shallow bay over 200 kilometres wide which acted as a giant evaporation pan. It was thought that this would help maintain the level of the Caspian Sea which by 1976 had dropped to 90 metres below sea level due to huge irrigation schemes on the inflowing rivers such as the Volga. Build a dam to isolate the bay and let it dry out, said the experts in Moscow. Evaporation would be greatly reduced and the Caspian would rise again. Within two years of construction the bay had dried out as planned. But salt began to blow inland contaminating agricultural land up to 200 kilometres away. The Caspian Sea rose but by more than expected. By 1991 it was up almost two metres, enough to have the Turkmenistan coast declared a flood disaster area. With the breakup of the Soviet Union, one of the first acts of the new Turkmenistan government was to order the demolition of the dam.