Uzbekistan warns of ‘disaster’ over Tajikistan mega-dam
By Staff Writers
Nov 17, 2010 Tashkent (AFP) – Uzbekistan Wednesday warned world powers of a looming environmental disaster from Tajikistan’s plan to build a huge hydro-electric dam, in a new show of tensions from the ex-Soviet neighbors. Tashkent also accused Tajikistan’s main aluminum plant, the largest in Central Asia and located near Uzbekistan’s southern border, of causing increased fluorine-related diseases among the population and millions of dollars damage to its agriculture. “Thoughtless management of transborder rivers, construction of environmentally harmful industrial projects made during the second half of the last century put our region on the verge of environmental disaster,” Uzbek President Islam Karimov said in a message to an international conference that opened in Tashkent. The conference gathered more than 100 environmental experts from over 30 countries, including the US and European Union members. The issues on the agenda highlights the increasingly tense relations between the two Central Asian states, which have been at odds on a number of issues for almost two decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Mountainous Tajikistan has pledged to move ahead unilaterally in the construction of the Rogun dam, which was first conceived as a gigantic Soviet hydro-electric power project. …
