FIRST AREAS IRRIGATED ON MAIN TURKMENIAN CANAL SITE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP07-02247R000200170010-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 19, 2011
• Sequence Number: 10
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/07/19 :CIA-RDP07-022478000200170010-1
~I RST AREAS
IRRIGATED
ON MAIN
TURKMENIAN.
.CANAL SITE
H E first five thousand acres of new
Tland will be irrigated this year
on the Main Turkmenian Canal
construction site. From now on, the
? area of irrigated land on the left bank
of the Amu Darya will be
progressively increasing all the time.
preparations are now in full swing at
Takhia Tash for the main work of building
the canal and hydro-electric station.
'fhb project for the by-pass canal
% had recently been approved. This will
by V. KORNILOV
vide water for the project's "pioneer
anal " until the dam across the Amu
D~t?ya has been completed. It will feed
the reservoirs 'on the Uzboi, taking from
tAe river some 35,600 gallons of water a
second. This by-pass canal will be
navigable to shipping.. '
Huge quantities of building eyuipmeTSt
arc arriving on the site. Recently three
rlectric excavators, -each of over q cubic
~?ards capacity, were asseiuh(ed at '1'akhia
~'I'ash. 'They will soon be joined by
'several more excavators.
A suction dredger from the ~-olga-lion,
No. ;o;, ~~~hich will be the first to start
cxca~-atron of the by-pass canal, is on its
~~ay down the ilmu llarya. It kill soon
'be joined by t~~o more suction dredgers.
`Next year, however, new suction dredgers
~~tiill be assembled at '1'akhia 'l'ash itself.
,I~or this purpose a good-sized, ~vell-
,eyuipped shipyard with building slips is
dieing fitted nut.
' The builders of this great construction
,project have ovcrfulfilled their programme
'for the' first seven months of the year, and
~avc pledged themselves to reach the
ientire year's targets by September s2, the
Second anniversary of the; publication of
the Soviet Uovernment's decision td build
the canal
'~ From the Volga-Don
Workers who have come to 'Turkmenia
from the Volga-Don are achieving a great
reputation for their excellent performance.
Alexander Kutuycv, a bulldozer operator,
for instance, is daily turning out three to
four times his quota. Other outstanding.
individuals include excavator operators
IGoryukhin, Prokopenko and Storozhenko;
scraper drivers Rodin and Ilyin ; assembly
man Meleshko, to name but a few.
Another group of Volga-Don specialists
and skilled workers will soon be on the
Main 'Turkmenian Cana} site. The V
i .Don training centre-a great school
..gaining skilled workers-is also moving
the Amu Darya very soon. f
Surveying wgrk is continuing on a large
kale along the course of the future canal-
there arc now nearly twice as many on
surveying expedition as last year.
The Kara Kum desert can to-day no
~'pnger be called desolate. I'o-day one
dears the hum of motors everYwllere.
Tt~RICMIfNtAi~ CANAL
~ from page I
;Motor trucks have been crossing it in all
directions, and their drivers have become ?.
so familiar with the.,de$~rt that they can now
t;o anywhere without guides.
What are the surveyors doing ? Engin-
eering and geological expeditions arc
continuing to tackle complicated problems..,
'T'hey arc working out the course of the
future canal, are determining the sites of
hydro-electric systems, arc studying the
iiltcr properties of the sands, etc.
Equipped with up-to-date facilities, parties
of an integrated geophysical expedition,
one of the largest here, have advanced far
into the desert.
'Thousands of people arc engaged in
ilxing and afforesting the sands. Already
now, Ion}; before the canal comes into
being, work has begun on planting saksaul
seeds and saplings in the desert. Extensive
preparations are being made by the builders
of irrigation and water-supply systems.
'The 'Turkmenvodstroy, an irrigation
engineering organisation whose staff of
many thousands is to bring water to
collective-farm fields over a wide mesh of
irrigation canals and infuse life into desert
land, has set up headquarters at 'I'ashauz.
Like the builders of the Main 'I'urk-
mcnian Canal, the irrigators a.re being
assisted by the entire country. Machines
and building materials are coming to the
'Turkmenvodstroy in an ever increasing
stream. So also arc highly skilled
specialists and workers.
Approved For Release 2011/07/19 :CIA-RDP07-022478000200170010-1