The Toktogul hydroelectric dam is the largest dam in Kyrgyzstan. It was built back in 1975, in the
middle segment of the Naryn, one of the tributaries of the Syr Darya river
The Drowned Hopes
of Ketmen-Tube
Every day, 73-year-old Karybek Tajibayev walks to collect water from a nearby canal – the only
source of drinking water in the village of Ozgorush. Years after the canal was built, residents are
still waiting for irrigation water to help grow fruit and vegetables on the sandy land
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Photo: Waldemar Salesski
Mountain villages next to one of Kyrgyzstan’s
greatest reservoirs still have no water