Geography of Tadjikistan

The Tadjikistan is a country of Central Asia surrounded by the Kyrgyzstan in north, the Ouzbékistan in north and the west, the China in the east and the Afghanistan in the south. Its ground is very broken: approximately 93% of the country are covered with mountains. The two principal chains, the Pamir and the Alaï, shelter the sources of moults rivers and rivers supplied with Glacier S; it is this water which one uses for to irrigate the agricultural fields since the Antiquité. The other important chain of this area of Asia, the Tian Shan, touches the northern border of the country. The mountains separate both plus big cities, in the plains of the south and north.

Dimensions and borders

Tadjikistan has a surface of: 143100 km. It measures 700 km of is in west and 350 km of north in the south. Its border, very broken and tortuous, is long of approximately: 3000 km, including 430 with the China in the east and: 1030 with the Afghanistan in the south. Most of the long border with Afghanistan follows the course of the Amou-Daria and its affluent, the Panj ( Daria-e Panj ), which draws its sources in Afghanistan and in Tadjikistan. The other neighbors of the country are the Ouzbékistan in the west and north the Kyrgyzstan.

Topography

Lower altitudes of Tadjikistan are in the north and the south of the country, separated by three mountainous chains from the Western section of the Tian Shan. Primarily parallel, the chains are Turkestan, the Zeravshan, and Hisor (or Gisar). The latter is at the north of the capital, Douchanbé, itself in the mid-west of the country.

More half of the country is above: 3000 Mr. Même the plains, whose Valley of Ferghana in north and plains in south-west, are well above the sea level. The peaks of the Turkestan chain go until: 5510 m, the most important mountains being close to the border with Kyrgyzstan in south-east. This area is dominated by the system Pamir - Alaï, which shelters two of the three highest mountains of the ex- Soviet Union: the Peak Lénine and the Peak Ismail Samani (formerly peak of Communism ), of: 7134 and of: 7495 m respectively. Several other mountains of the area exceed them: 7000 Mr.

The mountains shelter many Glacier S; largest, the Glacier Fedtchenko, has a surface of 700 km and is the largest glacier in the world apart from the polar regions.

The country being located on a Faille activates, it undergoes frequent earthquakes.

The valley of Ferghana, the area densément populated of the Central Asia, extends from the north of Tadjikistan in Ouzbékistan in the west and Kyrgyzstan in the east. This long valley, located between two important mountainous chains, has its lowest altitude, 320 m, with Khodjent on the Syr-Daria. The rivers bring rich person sediments in the valley since the surrounding mountains, thus creating fertile Oasis of grounds famous a long time.

Pamir

Tadjikistan has several of the more high mountains of the world, of which the chains Pamir and Alaï; 93% of the country are covered by mountains with altitudes varying with 300 m to almost: 7500 m, with almost 50% of the territory above: 3000 Mr.

The mountainous chains are separated by hundreds from Canyon S, Vallée S and throats, at the bottom of which rivers run which join larger valleys where are the urban centres. Pamir in particular shelter many Glacier S.

The Western part of the Vallée of Ferghana is in the north of the country; the valleys of the Kofarnihon and Vakhch are in south-west.

The border of north is composed by the chain Trans-Alaï, whose highest peak is the Ismail Somoni with: 7495 Mr. the border of the south is composed by the most septentrional chains of the Karakoram.

Hydrography

The very dense river system inhabitant of Tajik has two principal rivers: the Amou-Daria and the Syr-Daria. The most important affluents of Amou-Daria are the Vakhch and the Kofarnihon, which form valleys active of the North-East in south-west in the Western part of the country. Amou-Daria is the most important river of all the Central Asia. The upper part of the river, Panj, 921 km is long. The name of the river changes where Panj, Vakhch and Kofarnihon mix with south-west with Tadjikistan. Vakhch, called Kyzyl-Suu in Kyrgyzstan and Sourkhob in the center-north of Tadjikistan, is the second most important river in the south of the country after the Amou-Panj system. During the Soviet era several Barrage S on Vakhch was built to facilitate the irrigation and the energy production Hydroélectrique, in particular in Norak (or Nurek), in the east of Douchanbé, where one of the highest stoppings of the world created the tank of Norak. Several factories were also built on Vakhch to use water with various goals.

The two most important rivers of the north of Tadjikistan are the Syr-Daria and the Zeravchan. Syr-Daria, second longer river of Central Asia, runs during 195 km in the valley of Ferghana in the extreme north of Tadjikistan. Zarafchan runs in the center of Tadjikistan on 316 km.

The flow of the rivers of Tadjikistan increases twice a year: in spring, because of the rains and the snow which melts on the mountains, and in summer, because of the cast iron of the glaciers. The water of summer is most useful for the irrigation, particularly in the valley of Ferghana and the valleys of the south-east of the country.

The majority of the lakes of Tadjikistan were created by the glaciers and are in the area of the Pamir. Largest, the Kara-Koul, is a saline lake deprived of life, located at: 4200 Mr.

Rivers

Amou-Daria - Panj
Bartang
Gount
Kafirnigan
Mouksou
Murghab
Obihingou
Oksou
Syr-Daria
Sourkhandarya
Vakhch - Sourkhob
Vantch
Yazgoulyam
Zeravchan

Climate

The climate of Tadjikistan is continental, subtropical and semi-arid with some desert areas. The climate changes radically with rise. The valley of Ferghana and other small altitudes are protected from the Arctic masses of cold air by the mountains but see each year more than one hundred days at temperatures in lower part of 0°C. In the subtropical valleys of south-west, which have the highest averages of temperature of the country, the climate is arid (though certain areas are well irrigated to allow agriculture).

The lowest rises in the country see an average of 23º with 30°C in July and -1º with 3°C in January. In the Eastern Pamir, the average is of 5º with 10°C in July and -15º with -20°C in January.

Tadjikistan is the country of Central Asia which sees the most precipitation, with an annual average from 500 to 600 mm in the valleys of Kafirnigan and Vakhsh in the south and of: 1500 mm in the mountains. The Fedtchenko glacier sees until: 2236 mm of snow each year. There is only in the valley of Ferghana and the areas protected by the mountains which one finds similar a precipitation to the remainder of the Central Asia: into Pamir Eastern less than 100 mm fall each year.

Most of precipitation falls in winter and spring.

Environmental problems

The majority of the environmental problems of Tadjkistan are related to the agricultural policy decided by the Soviet government . In 1991 the widespread use of not-biological manures and produced agrochemical was already a big factor of pollution in the country. Among the products one found DDT, banished by an international agreement, and several Défoliant S and weedkillers. In addition to the damage inflicted with the air, the ground and water, the agrochemical products contaminated seeds of Coton, whose oil is often used in the local kitchen. The cotton farmers and their families are particularly likely to be touched, by direct physical contact and the use of branches of this plant like fuel. All these toxic sources are regarded as contributing largely to the strong maternal death and infantile like with the congenital diseases. In 1994, infantile death rate was of 43,2 for each thousand births, the second rate highest of the former Soviet republics. In 1990 it was of 40 per thousand.

Cotton requires a particularly intense irrigation. In the areas producing cotton, the farms were established on the semi-arid or arid ground. The period of growth of cotton is in summer, when it does not rain in these areas. The increase of 50% of the production of cotton, ordered by the Soviet authorities and post-Soviet between 1964 and 1994 put much pressure on the water supply. The badly conceived networks of irrigation underwent overflows and escapes which increased contaminated the salinity of the ground and it agrochemical products which were distributed to other areas by the rivers, of which the Mer of Aral.

Already in the years 1980, almost 90% of the consumption of water in Central Asia were at agricultural ends. From this percentage, 75% came from the rivers Amou-Daria and Syr-Daria, the principal affluents of the sea of Aral, on the border with the Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyzstan. When the gradual disappearance of the sea became increasingly known in the years 1980, the policy of use of water became a sensitive topic among the Soviet republics, of which Tadjikistan, where the sources of several important rivers are, and of Ouzbékistan. At the end of the Soviet era the central government had slackened the central control of the policy of the water of the Central Asia, but the republics themselves had not agreed on the policy of allowance.

Industry also causes many problems of pollution, in particular during the production of metals not Fer reux. One of the most important industrial sites of the country, the factory of Aluminum of Regar (also called Toursounzoda), in the west of Douchanbé close to the border with Ouzbékistan, product of enormous quantities of waste in form of Gaz which was denounced like persons in charge of the increase sudden in the number of congenital diseases among the local population.

In 1992 the Supreme Soviet of Tadjikistan establishes a Ministry for environmental protection. However, its activity was largely limited by the political disturbances of the years following the independence of the country. The only environmental group recorded in Tadjikistan with the beginning of the year 1990 was a chapter of the socio-ecological Alliance, the greatest environmental association abstract of the ex-USSR. The chapter inhabitant of Tajik deals especially with research and to organize demonstrations against the hydroelectric project of factory with Roghoun.

Raw data

Surface:

total: : 143100 km
ground: : 142700 km
water: : 400 km

Land borders:

total: : 3651 km
adjoining countries: Afghanistan (: 1206 km), China (414 km), Kyrgyzstan (870 km), Ouzbékistan (: 1161 km)

Coasts: none

maritime Claims: none

Altitude:

minimal: on the Syr-Daria (300 m)
maximum: Peak Ismail Samani (: 7495 m)

Natural resources: Hydroelectric, Oil, Uranium, mercury, Lignite, Lead, Antimony, Tungsten

Exploitation of the ground:

arable lands: 6%
permanent crops: 0%
permanent pastures: 25%
forest: 4%
other: 65% (is. 1993)

irrigated Grounds: : 6390 km (are. 1993)

Natural disasters: frequent earthquakes of variable intensity and Flood S and fall during the cast iron of the spring snow.

environmental Problems: insufficient sanitary facilities; increasing salinity of the ground; industrial pollution; excessive use of pesticides; excessive use of water leading to the Sea of Aral for irrigation.

International treaties:

left with: Convention on biological diversity, Protocol of Kyoto, turning into a desert, environmental modification, protection of the layer of ozone.

See too

References

Library off Congress Country Studies: Tajikistan
the CIA World Factbook: Tajikistan

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