Building a nation through a dam: the case of Rogun in Tajikistan

Abstract

Ruling elites can use the symbolism of major dams to gain legitimacy and bolster a sense of national identity and patriotism. The Rogun Dam in Tajikistan is a gigantic hydraulic infrastructure that if and when finished will be the tallest in the world, allowing the country to gain energy self-sufficiency. Furthermore, by projecting an image of progress and success, such a structure can contribute to creating and strengthening a nationalistic discourse even before its completion. This paper begins by introducing the concept of nation-building in relation to the Central Asian setting and then connects it with the literature exploring the interplay between water and power. Subsequently, the focus moves to the Rogun project, illustrating the main traits of the Rogun ideology and outlining the rhetorical legitimation strategies used by the Tajik government to frame the dam as a nationally cohesive and patriotic project.

Keywords:

• nation-building
• water
• Tajikistan
• Rogun
• dams

Notes

1 The Vakhsh river is one of the main tributaries of the Amu Darya river, the largest river of Central Asia.

2 The International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) defines a major dam as a dam with a height of 150 m or more from the foundation, a reservoir storage capacity of at least 25 km³ and an electrical generation capacity of at least 1000 MW. There are more than 300 dams of this category worldwide (Dorcey 1997, 19).

3 According to the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) 2010 survey, 94% of those interviewed indicated Tajik television as the most used source of information on what is happening in Tajikistan (IFES 2010, 45).

4 However only four years later, in 1958, Nehru seemed to have changed his opinion on the matter, deploring the quest for big dams as a “disease of gigantism” (D'Souza 2008, 112).

5 Due to the country's lack of energy, Tajikistan's population has electricity for two–three hours a day from October to May (Trend News Agency 2012).

6 See http://www.avesta.tj/,top-leftcolumn. Accessed March 1, 2013.

7 As pointed out by Cummings (2012, 110), while Sharia (the Islamic law) has no official status in the Central Asian countries and the five regional leaders have declared their states secular, they have nevertheless used Islam as a legitimation tool, integrating it (each one differently) in their state ideologies.

8 Later in 2011, the GoT interrupted the sale of Rogun shares following criticism of the IPO by the International Monetary Fund (IMF 2010).

9 Tajikistan did not exist as an ethnically defined political unit before the Bolshevik revolution. In 1924, the USSR created the Tajik Autonomous SSR (ASSR) that was part of the larger Uzbek SSR. In 1929, the Tajik ASSR achieved the status of union republic, becoming the Tajik SSR.