USSR ENGINEERING RESTORES WATER TO THE USBOY RIVER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000700010490-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 21, 2011
• Sequence Number: 490
• Publication Date: October 6, 1951
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/09/21: CIA-RDP80-00809A000700010490-5
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CLASSIFICATION CONF~ rn1>'FUIE%T1fl
REPORT
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO.
COUNTRY USSR
:''BJECT Geographic - Rivers, irrigation
HOW
PUBLISHED Monthly periodical
WHERE
DATE
PUBLISHED Oct 1950
LANGUAGE
THIS S WITHIN ATHE MEANING O OF fESPIONAGE DACT
Of THE UNITED STATES N NT
O EIL SI AND SE. Al AMENDED. ITS TRANSMISSION ON THE REVELATION
ON '
OP TS CONTENTS IN ANT YANNLN Of THIS FONTS OISI PNONIDNITEE. IS PRO
DATE OF
INFORMATION 1950
NO. OF PAGES 2
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
USSR ENGINEERING RESTORES
WATER TO THE USBOY RIB
"The ancient bed of the Uzboy" is indicated on USSR maps by a double-
border of the Kara-Kum Desert.
t
ern
dotted line winding along the northwes
rt of the Sarykemyshskaya depression near
The line begins in the southern pa
the landmark (urochishche) Charyshly and extends first south and then south-
west to the shores of the Caspian Sea.
The bed of the Uzboy is the longest (775 kilometers), widest (up to 6
kilometers), and deepest (20-60 meters) of the old river beds to be found in
the deserts of Central Asia, and it crosses the largest desert of the USSR.
The bed itself is as well preserved as if waters had ceased to flow along its
+ e ilo walon it
course less than 10 years ago. The-bed of -,he Uzboy, atrthe oand then ere t.
ceases to run in a north-south frect-
Here the valley of Uzboy is rather shallow and about 5 kilometers wide. The met bed itself is not wider than metershandacutsvthroughtfirm strrataeofsground.
The . bottom the bed is
in aprof white ecipice limestone,
ash. Further down ' the bed cuts through-
about bottom
and then it ends abruptly layers
rises gradually, 7ly,
abouut 60 or 75 meters in diameter and from 9 to 15 meters deep. large The water of the lake gypsum. very Tits lake wasrformediby a 'Water-
transparent crystals of kfall; ll; at present, , the lake is fed by the ground waters which seep through into
it. Since the water evaporates rapidly in the hot, dry air of the desert, it itable for
300 or
Abou
h
400 kilo furtherbitterdownstreamand not valley ofthecUzboyppasses overt loose sands and meterlayss depth
s from
20 it is from 3 to 6 kilometers wide here and
in some places sand g ntlyislopi g in otherrs,Ptare.
The sides s of the valley, , steep P
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/09/21: CIA-RDP80-00809A000700010490-5
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/09/21: CIA-RDP80-00809A000700010490-5
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M1
CONFIDENTIAL
covered with desert dunes, and yellow drifts of sand extend into the valley.
The sands are sparsely covered with leafless shrubs of saksaul L5 loxy10n,
genus Arthrophytiu?~, cherkez ~alsola arbuscula Richter, bushes
ErythroniumY, which resemble igantic horsetail plants Band wsmall ith tiny acacia
of astragalus fFabaceae Tamil , ephedra Lgenus EphedrJ,
trees.
The bed of the dead river, and the entire valley, can
be seen from the sandy slopes. Many ng oa of hetem of the wide valley,
or contain dry salt deposits,. The gently sloping water during the
with its occasions', terraces, gives evidence of erosion by
lifetime of the now dead river.
About 500 kilometers of the Uzboy bed is dry, but the rest of it, about
250 kilometers long, is covered with salt-water lakes or salt deposits, the
latter formed by evaporation of the ground water collecting in the bed.
A decree of the Council of Ministers USSR specifies that the
feasible To kmenmpt
Canal will by-pass the SarykamysMinY depression. to the, depression have
to restore the large lake, since the river beds leading t o if on
s used,
a-Dar ya,
long been clogged with silt and the youngest one, the a, Consequently,
would supply only one tenth of the water supplied by the Amu-Dar't' s to fill
the Sar more, filling the odepressionrwith wateruwould notyrestoreathedUzboysRiver,Fsincer
m surplus water to flow out
the evaporation in the vast lake would not leave any surplus water from owe twer
Athe lake. thppreachessofsthe Uzboy, by-passingithe depression. was decided t Amu-Dar ya to the e upper
Many generations of Turkmen people have dreamed of seeing water in the
and now USSR engineering is making their dream come true. Two
Uzboy aver,
wiformerly ll raiseexisted
water
large dams will be built at the spots where the waterfalls
(near Kurtyshkiy, Igdinskiye, and Burgunskiye)- gravity which have never been irrigated before, including those situated close to the
Iranian border. Restoration of the Uzboy will result in irrottonigaandtipartly on of im-(in
mense areas of land which will e crop8.
the south) for growing subtropi
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CONFIDENTIAL
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/09/21: CIA-RDP80-00809A000700010490-5