Tajik leader urges world community to invest in Rogun HPP

DUSHANBE, September 3 (Itar-Tass) - Tajikistan's President Emomali
Rakhmon has urged the world community to launch joint investment projects
in the sphere of hydropower industry, in particular those concerning the
completion of the Rogun hydropower plant.
The construction of the HPP would have solved the problem of supplying
the whole Central Asian region with cheap electricity, as well as make it
possible to irrigate additionally more than two million hectares of arid
lands, the Tajik president told the third World Climate Conference in
Geneva, which discusses ways to preserve and rationally use water
resources.
"In Tajikistan alone annual potential hydro resources make up 527
billion kilowatt-hours, which is thrice more than the current demands of
the region," the president stressed. However, only five to six percent of
these resources are used, he added.
"Apart from providing ecologically clean and cheap electricity, hydro
power industry is very important for a stable use of natural resources in
the future, when oil and gas reserves will be reduced or exhausted,"
Emomali Rakhmon added.
Tajikistan yearly allocates up from 100 to 150 million U. S. dollars
for the construction of a 335-meter high Rogun hydropower plant with a
capacity of 3,600 MW, while the total cost of the project is estimated at
more than two billion U.S. dollars.
Some neighbouring countries of the region, situated in the
trans-border rivers' lower reaches, first of all Uzbekistan, are
categorically against the construction of the hydropower plant. Uzbekistan
insists on an independent international expertise with the participation
of heavyweight specialists, who would be guided by corresponding U.N.
conventions.
Dushanbe, for its part, considers these fears groundless, and the
Tajik leader reiterated this in Geneva on Thursday.
-0-zhe/kud