Kara-Kum Desert
The Kara-Kum (Garagum) Desert (in Turkish gara means "black" and gum means "desert") is a large midlatitude desert occupying approximately 80 percent of the territory of the Republic of Turkmenistan and portions of southwestern Uzbekistan. Even though most of the desert iscomposed of sand, sand dunes, and hard rocky surfaces (takir in Russian), portions have been used as pasture for camels and, during the Soviet period, as irrigated cotton acreage.
The Kara-Kum Canal, begun in 1954, runs along the southern part of the desert. It diverts water from the middle course of the Amu Dar'ya River westward, crosses the Murghab River delta in the southeastern portion of the desert, and runs along the northern foothills of the Kopet-Dag toward the Caspian Sea. It is approximately 1,400 kilometers long and provides most of the water for personal and agricultural uses in Turkmenistan.
Most of the canal is unlined, and waterlogging and soil salinization are major problems in areas of the desert around the canal because of seepage. The canal is also the greatest single contributor to the shrinking of the Aral Sea, as the canal diverts the largest amount of water among all the irrigation structures in the Aral Sea basin.
Further Reading
Pryde, Philip, ed. (1995) Environmental Resources and Constraints in the Former Soviet Republics. Boulder, CO: West-view Press.
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