Rogun Dam

Rogun Dam
Location of Rogun Dam in Tajikistan
Location	southern Tajikistan
Coordinates	38°40′59″N 69°46′19″E / 38.68306°N 69.77194°E / 38.68306; 69.77194Coordinates: 38°40′59″N 69°46′19″E / 38.68306°N 69.77194°E / 38.68306; 69.77194
Status	Under construction
Construction began	1976 (1976)
Opening date	2018 (Expected)
Construction cost	US$2–5billion
Owner(s)	Government of Tajikistan
Dam and spillways
Impounds	Vakhsh River
Height	265–335 metres (869–1,099 ft)
Reservoir
Total capacity	13.3 km3 (10,782,485 acre·ft)
Surface area	110.7 km2 (27,400 acres)
Power station
Turbines	6 x 600 MW
Installed capacity	3,600 MW (planned)
Annual generation	13.1 TWh (planned)

Rogun Dam is an embankment dam under construction on the Vakhsh River in southern Tajikistan. It is one of the planned hydroelectric power plants of Vakhsh Cascade. Over three decades only preliminary construction has been carried out on the dam. Due to its controversial state, construction was suspended in August 2012 pending World Bank reports, but has since then resumed. The dam has drawn complaints from neighbor Uzbekistan, which fears it will negatively impact its lucrative cotton crops. The dispute over the project has contributed significantly to bitter relations between the two former Soviet republics.

The Rogun Dam was first proposed in 1959 and a technical scheme was developed by 1965. Construction began in 1976, however the project was frozen after the collapse of the Soviet Union. An agreement on finishing the construction was signed between Tajikistan and Russia in 1994; however, as the agreement was not implemented, it was denounced by Tajikistan parliament. In October 2004, an agreement was signed with RUSAL according to which RUSAL agreed to complete the Rogun facility, to build a new aluminum plant and to rebuild the Tursunzade Aluminum Smelter. In February 2007, a new partnership between Russia and Tajikistan to complete the dam was announced but later was refused by Russia because of disagreements concerning the controlling stake in the project. In May 2008, Tajikistan announced that construction on the dam had resumed. By December 2010, one of the river diversion tunnels was renovated and rebuilt and the second expected to commence in June or July 2011. Construction on the dam was suspended in August 2012 pending the World Bank assessment.

In 2010, Tajikistan launched an IPO to raise US$1.4billion to finish construction of the dam. By April 26 of that year the Tajik government had raised just US$184 million, enough for two years of construction.

On July 1, 2016 the state commission in charge of the project has picked the Italian company Salini Impregilo to carry out the construction for $3.9 billion. The project is broken down into four components, with the most expensive one involving the building of a 335-meter-high rockfill dam which will entail costs of around $1.95 billion.