DUSHANBE, February 6, 2012, Asia-Plus  -- Issues related to compensations for communities moved from the Roghun Dam flooding zone were a major topic a meeting hosted by Tajikistan’s Republican Bureau on Human Rights and Rule of Law (BHR) at the end of last week.  A survey on the Rogun Dam resettlement conducted by BHR was presented during the meeting.

Speaking at the meeting, Ramazon Mirzoyev, the head of the directorate for the Roghun Dam flooding zone, noted that the government was successfully resolving the compensation issues.  According to him, resettled families are allegedly satisfied with compensations they received.  “Compensations were increased from a total of 13 million somoni in 2009-2010 to 39.5 million somoni in 2011,” Mirzoyev said, noting that houses are estimated by specialists from the State Committee for Investments and State-owned Property Management on average at 100,000 somoni each.

It is to be noted that introduced in 2009, the Rogun Dam resettlement scheme has drawn intensive criticism from the resettled families, human rights organizations and some political analysts.  Criticism from the affected populations and human rights watchdogs has mostly focused on the inadequate compensation for displaced communities.

The initial payment amounts to 30 percent of the compensation and human rights activists offer to increase the initial payment to 80 percent, but this proposal has not been supported. 

Tahmina Jouraeva, coordinator of a project that monitors the Rogun Dam resettlement at the BHR, noted that 1,030 families have been moved from the Roghun Dam flooding zone so far.  In all, some 7,000 families are expected to be moved from the Roghun Dam flooding zone by 2015.   

Mr. Robert Zwahlen, the specialist from Poyry Energy Ltd, noted that the resettlement issue was of significant importance.  We will recall that Swiss company, Poyry Energy Ltd, has been granted the contract for carrying out the environmental and social assessment of the Roghun hydroelectricity project.

Radio Liberty reported in June 2011 that World Bank director of strategy and operations in Europe and Central Asia Theodore Ahlers announced on June 1, 2011 that the Tajik government temporarily put a halt to a program for resettling tens of thousands of villagers from the projected reservoir area of the giant Roghun Dam. According to Ahlers, the resettlement was suspended until the results of two ongoing World Bank commissioned studies, which look at the dam’s economic feasibility and its potential social and environmental impact, become available. These studies are expected to be completed in late 2012.