Turkmen scientists and specialists to thoroughly study the exact volume and quality of water collected in the Altyn Asyr Lake for its further use in agriculture and the special features of agricultural crops grown in this region.
Altyn Asyr is a man made lake in the Garashor Depression of the Karakum Desert. It is a single system of drainage collectors to accumulate drainage waters from irrigated lands in all regions of the country and diversion of these waters to the natural Garashor Depression.
The Garashor Depression is a 120 kilometre long natural bowl in the northwest of Turkmenistan. It is about 20 kilometres wide and the depth relative to sea level is -28 meters. According to the national estimates, the Garashor Depression contains around 580 million cubic meters of water.
The specialists will also study the feasibility of forming farmers’ associations near the lake. They will particularly focus on vegetable and cucurbitaceous crops cultivation, fishery and camel breeding in the areas close to the lake, and prepare scientific proposals on the rational use of water resources of the reserve.
The Altyn Asyr Lake project was started in 2000 and the lake is expected to span 2,000 km2 with a maximum depth of 70 m, and hold more than 130 cubic kilometers of water upon completion.
