PERMANENT MISSION OF THE REPUBLIC OF TAJIKISTAN
TO THE UNITED NATIONS
136 EAST 67TH STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10021
Tel . (212) 744-2196, Fax (212) 472-7645
STATEMENT
by
H.E . Mr. Sirodjidin Aslov,
Permanent Representative of the Republic of Taj ikistan to the UN
on the occasion of the Ministerial Dialogue "Making a Difference" in
the High-Level Segment of CSD
New York, 11 May 2006
1
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Distinguished Mr. Chairman,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
First of all I would like to extend our sincere appreciation to the organizers of this
event and express hope that CSD-14 will enhance the efforts of the international
community at the implementation of the decisions made by the World Summit on
Sustainable Development in Johannesburg . The issues on today's agenda are those
of top priority for Tajikistan. Tajikistan does not explore hydrocarbon deposits
because 93 percent of our territory are covered with mountains, and exploration of
hydrocarbon deposits deep in bowels of earth would be very costly . But my
country is an upper watersheds zone for the Aral Sea basin and is rich in water
resources such as glaciers, lakes and rivers, which are vital for sustaining the
climate and environmental balance of our region, and also allow to generate vast
amounts of cost effective and environmentally sound hydropower energy . The
potential generating capacity of Tajikistan exceeds 500 billion KWh per year .
The development of hydropower engineering can serve not only as a powerful
impetus for Tajikistan's economic development . It will allow to address such
major issues faced by the country as creation of extra jobs, reduction of labor
migration and population's poverty level.
Currently the Republic of Tajikistan .generates 17,1 billion KWh per year.
The Government of Tajikistan undertakes considerable efforts to explore the
country's enormous hydropower resources, which makes it possible for the
country not only to meet its own needs but also increase the volume of hydropower
exports.
Within these efforts recently there have been commissioned the hydropower
station "Pamir 1" and 26 small hydropower stations . In compliance with the
investment agreements signed with various companies from Russia and Iran we
started construction of large-scale hydropower projects, among them the Rogun,
Sangtuda-1 and Sangtuda-2 hydropower stations .
After the commissioning of new hydropower stations and modernization of the
existing ones and implementation of the National Strategy for development of
hydropower engineering the production of electric power will, accordingly reach
26,4 billion KWh. by 2010,
35 billion KWh by the year 2015 .
80 billion KWh per year by 2025
Measures are being undertaken to create the relevant infrastructure for hydropower
transportation within the country and for its exports to the region's states . To this
end the construction of the transmission line "South-North" has been started, and
the investment projects for the construction of the transmission lines of RogunKabul-
Ghirat - Meshkhed and Rogun - Kabul - Islamabad are being currently
developed.
The construction of the above transmission lines is of great importance for the
region.
Given the above and taking into account the ever increasing need in electric power,
Tajikistan could export its electric power to the Central Asian states neighboring
Tajikistan, as well as to the Russian Federation, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, India
and China .
We are convinced that cooperation of the states of our region in the exploration of
unique water and hydropower resources of Tajikistan is going to become one of the
major sources for providing them with energy in the near future .
I would like to avail myself of this opportunity to briefly comment on some aspects
of the Aral Sea environmental crises faced by our region, which involves numerous
issues of social and economic and sustainable development of the region's states,
and which, because of its nature and magnitude, has already acquired a global
dimension. In order to halt the expanding crises thirteen years ago Heads of state of
the region established the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea . The Fund
comprises two Commissions, one of them is the Commission on Sustainable
development . The states of the region have approved of the "Program of actions on
social and economic and environmental rehabilitation of the Aral Sea Basin
through the year 2010" . However, because of the shortage of investments the
Program cannot be properly implemented . Realizing the scope of the Aral Sea
disaster the President of the Fund, President of the Republic of Tajikistan,
Emomali Rakhmonov, called on the international community to nominate this
region as a pilot project region for the implementation of the Millennium
Development Goals, since environmental and water economy problems resulted in
serious social and economic problems, the solution of which requires the
involvement of the world community and international organizations . I am taking
this opportunity to address the Commission on Sustainable Development and other
international institutions participating in this session with a request to pay more
attention to the issue of dealing with the Aral Sea crises .
Given the above and the implementation of the International Decade of Action
"Water for Life, 2005-2015" we propose to develop and implement new
approaches towards rational usage of water and hydropower resources and use
them as one of the major instruments for addressing such global issues as poverty
reduction, electric power supply, sustaining of the climate, and improvement of
environment for future generations .
Thank you for attention.
