Ijtimoiy-gumanitar fanlar

SURXON-SHEROBOD VOHASIDA IRRIGATSIYA QURILISHLARI VA CHO‘L MASSIVLARINING O‘ZLASHTIRILISHI (1950–1970-yillar)

Irrigation, Surkhan-Sherobod oasis, Zang canal, South Surkhan reservoir, Sherobod machine canal, Amu-Zang canal, pumping station, desert development, cotton monoculture, land reclamation, archival source, Amu Darya basin

Authors

Drawing on archival records and periodical press materials, this article studies the large-scale irrigation construction undertaken in the Surkhan-Sherobod oasis of southern Uzbekistan between 1950 and 1970. Four interrelated projects — the reconstruction of the Zang canal, the South Surkhan reservoir, the Sherobod main machine canal and the Amu-Zang machine canal — are treated as successive stages of a single engineering model that moved from regulating local river flow to drawing directly on the Amu Darya. The author argues that the growth of irrigation in the oasis was subordinated to expanding the fine-fibre cotton base, that industrial construction methods were combined with mass mobilisation campaigns, and that figures published in the Soviet press diverge considerably from departmental archival data. The economic returns of the works are assessed together with their adverse land-reclamation consequences.