The apples will blossom in Karakum, too
April 04, 2018 | 17:42 |1469
The Turkmen land is a country of natural riddles and paradoxes. Considerable distance from the oceans provides for a cloudless sky and an arid, hot climate, and the number of sunny days in a year exceeds 300. Agriculture in the country is based solely on artificial irrigation, because ¾ of its territory is occupied by the "Black sands" - the Karakum. The existing sources of irrigation allow processing about 20 thousand square km - less than 4% of the total area. But a continuously growing economy and positive demography demand more, much more. It sounds incredible, but it's the Karakums that can become that source. For millions of years precipitation in the form of rain and snow, falling in the mountains of Kopetdag, flowed into the desert sands. The waters of the Tejen, Murgab rivers and Amu Darya, when it, crossing the Central Kara Kum, flowed into the Caspian Sea, also end up in the desert. The volatility with scarce desert vegetation has always been insignificant. Thus, the grouns of the Karakum keep not only untold wealth - hydrocarbons, but also the most valuable substance for a human - water. The reality of such a source of water is confirmed by the extraction of fresh water in the Libyan desert, which provides all the northern coast of the country with life-giving moisture. But the Libyan desert is several times smaller than the Karakum desert, and no significant river flows into it. The flooding of the Karakum Desert will significantly increase the production of agricultural products, expand the area of pastures and turn a unique desert into a beautiful oasis and an attractive tourist zone.Mukhtar ALIYEV
