Kayrakkum Reservoir

The reservoir created by the Kayrakkum Dam has a surface area of {{Cvt|523|km2}}; its length is {{Cvt|56|km}} and maximum width {{Cvt|15|km}}. Its maximum depth near the dam at its western end is {{Cvt|25|m}}; the average depth is {{Cvt|8|m}}. At the other end, the head of the reservoir is silted up for a distance of {{Cvt|10-15|km}}, a consequence of the construction of the Toktogul hydroelectric power station upstream on the Naryn River in Kyrgyzstan. By 2009, the reservoir lost an estimated one-third of its full volume to silt.{{Cite news|url = http://www.dw.com/ru/%D1%81%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%8F%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5-%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%B9%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%BA%D1%83%D0%BC%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%BE-%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%BE%D1%85%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%89%D0%B0-%D0%B2%D1%8B%D0%B7%D1%8B%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%B5%D1%82-%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B3%D1%83-%D1%8D%D0%BA%D1%81%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B2/a-4432221|title = Состояние Кайраккумского водохранилища вызывает тревогу экспертов|date = 25 June 2009|agency = Deutsche Welle|access-date = 12 May 2016}} Silted areas are characterised by multiple small lakes and shallows, with tugay vegetation of tamarisk, oleaster, poplar thickets and reed beds, supporting many thousands of wintering waterfowl, waders and birds of prey. The climate of the region is continental and semi-arid.{{cite web |url= http://www.birdlife.org |title= Kayrakkum Reservoir|access-date=2013-04-06 |work= Important Bird Areas factsheet |publisher= BirdLife International |year= 2013}}

The construction of the Kayrakkum Dam for irrigation and hydroelectricity generation purposes began in the Kayrakkum steppe in July 1951. Starting in 1954, about 2,400 families or an estimated 12,000 people were resettled from some 20 villages located in the reservoir area.{{Cite book|title = The Transformation of Tajikistan: The Sources of Statehood|last = Sodiqov|first = Alexander|publisher = Routledge|year = 2013|isbn =9781135697600|editor-last = Heathershaw|editor-first = John|location = New York, NY|pages = 49–65|chapter = From Resettlement to Conflict: Development-Induced Involuntary Displacement and Violence in Tajikistan|editor-last2 = Herzig|editor-first2 = Edmund|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=jUHcAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA49}} Most of these people were moved to the new cotton producing areas in northern Tajikistan. In 1956, the dam was completed and the filling of the reservoir began.{{Cite news|url = http://news.tj/en/node/123004|title = Плотина развития|date = 15 June 2012|newspaper = Азия-Плюс|access-date = 12 May 2016|archive-date = 5 June 2016|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160605135701/http://news.tj/en/node/123004|url-status = dead}}

A {{Cvt|1150|km2}} tract of land encompassing the reservoir and its surrounds has been identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports significant numbers of the populations of various bird species, either as residents, or as overwintering, breeding or passage migrants. These include mallards, pygmy cormorants, saker falcons, cinereous vultures, great bustards, houbara bustards, common cranes, pale-backed pigeons, pallid scops-owls, Egyptian nightjars, European rollers, white-winged woodpeckers, great tits, desert larks, streaked scrub-warblers, Sykes's warblers, Asian desert warblers, saxaul sparrows and desert finches.

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Category:Important Bird Areas of Tajikistan

Category:Lakes of Tajikistan

Category:Reservoirs in Tajikistan

Category:Sughd Region

Category:Ramsar sites in Tajikistan

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