Main Turkmen Canal

The Main Turkmen Canal was a large-scale irrigation project in Soviet Turkmenistan. The canal was intended to transport water from the Amu Darya river to Krasnovodsk (now Türkmenbaşy), a city in Turkmenistan on the coast of the Caspian Sea. The canal was going to use the course of the ancient dry Uzboy River bed.

The building of canals and channels for irrigation in Turkmenistan began in the 1930s. In 1929, the Bassaga-Kerkinskiy Canal was completed at a length of 100 km. The development of the outlet design for the Amu Darya began in 1932. The design was to bring water from the Amu Darya across Turkmenistan to the coast of the Caspian Sea to irrigate the Karakum Desert. The project was supported by Hydrologist V. Tsinzerling, who estimated the volume of water taken from the river to be around 17-35 cu km, which, according to estimations, should not have injured the economy of Uzbekistan or the ecology of the Aral Sea. It was intended to fill Sarykamysskoe Lake and to take from 30 to 50 cubic kilometers per year for 4 to 8 years. This version was approved by the State Planning Committee of the USSR in 1932. The second plan was chosen. The length of the canal was to be more than 1200 kilometers, beginning from Takhiatash, a town/city in Uzbekistan, then extended 10 km from the town of Nukus to Krasnovodsk on the Caspian Coast of Turkmenistan. However, the discharge of water into the Caspian Sea was not planned.

A system of weirs, sluices, reservoirs, hydroelectric power plants, diverters and conduits, over 1000 kilometers long was planned along the canal's route. At the beginning of the canal at Takhiatash, Uzbekistan an enormous weir was built which had to be combined with the hydroelectric power plant. 25 percent of the water from the Amu Darya was to be drained into the canal to drain the Aral Sea. With the level of the Aral Sea lowered, the intention was to use the exposed land for agriculture, but the salt of the lower reaches of the Amu Darya river had to be lowered according to calculations.

...
Wikipedia