Water level in Lake Sarez reportedly drops two meters

DUSHANBE, July 19, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- Khaybullo Latipov, head of the Committee for Emergency Situations (CES), told reporters on July 19 that over the first six months of this year, water level in Lake Sarez has dropped nearly two meters.

According to him, the main reasons for fall of water level in Lake Sarez are the past winter with little snow and dry summer.

The lake formed in 1911, after a great earthquake, when the Murgab River was blocked by a big landslide.  The earthquake was reportedly estimated at 6.5-7.0 on Richter scale.  The landslide was 2.2 million cubic meters and formed the Usoy Dam, which is 3km long and 550m high, the tallest natural dam in the world.  The lake reached its current level in 1920.

In 2000, the Lake Sarez Risk Mitigation Project (LSRMP) was launched.  The project aiming at reducing the risk related to the natural structure by implementing a monitoring and an early warning system, by training the population leaving downstream and developing long term solutions, is a partnership between the Government and the people of Tajikistan, the World Bank and the donor community represented by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).  The main Tajik counterpart for the project is the Committee for Emergency Situations (CES).

A 2004 study by the World Bank held that the dam was stable.  The principal danger seems to be a partially detached mass of rock of about 3 cubic kilometers that could break loose and fall into the lake.  Since the valley below the dam is so narrow, any flood would be very destructive.