The Rivers Without Borders international environmental organisation has released the report, in which it reviews alternative ways to complete the Rogun hydropower plant project in Tajikistan, the press office of the organisation reported.
It should be noted that the construction of a 335-metre-high dam requires $6.4 billion in investment, while the project implementation poses considerable environmental risks. The authors of the report believe that the most effective option to complete the Rogun hydropower plant project cannot be chosen without comparing the current alternative ways of developing Tajikistan’s energy sector and the associated impacts on the natural environment.
Ecologists claim that rolling blackouts in Tajikistan will continue even after completing the construction of the Rogun hydropower plant and the highest dam in the world. According to their analysis, the project will negatively affect the population of endangered shovelnose sturgeon in the Vakhsh, as well as the fertile river plains, where the well-being of most people in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan is entirely dependent on irrigated agriculture.
However, the authors are convinced that these environmental problems can be avoided by constructing a lower dam at the Rogun hydropower plant and spending the saved funds on solar power plants. This will significantly reduce the economic, social and humanitarian damages from the Rogun project.
According to preliminary estimates by the organisation, large-scale solar energy build-out along with the construction of the smaller Rogun hydropower plant will allow fully covering winter electricity shortages in Tajikistan by 2030-2031.
