Karakum Canal
Canal de Karakum
- Date
- 1954-1988 · confidence high
- Place
- Karakum Canal, Mary, Turkmenistan
- Credited to
- Soviet engineers and Turkmen workers
- Field
- Tools
What it is
A canal of about 1,375 km carrying water from the Amu Darya across the Karakum Desert to Ashgabat and the west of the country, for irrigation, navigation and supply. It is the largest irrigation and navigation canal in Central Asia.
Works began in 1954; the canal reached Ashgabat in 1962 and its present length around 1988. A share of the water is lost to seepage.
What it led to
- cotton growing and agricultural expansion in the Turkmen desert
- diversion of Amu Darya flow and contribution to the drying of the Aral Sea
- new towns and oases in southern Turkmenistan