Journey to the Rogun Dam: Tajikistan's 'greatest dream'

The road from Dushanbe to Rogun begins with wide, quiet streets and clean parks of the capital, then gradually vanishes as the city gives way to rocky mountain ranges and small villages. The Vakhsh River appears below like a furious blue thread cutting through the valley. There are no luxury hotels, huge billboards, or restaurants along the way. Only silent mountains, heavy trucks, and workers heading toward the massive project that almost every Tajik knows: the Rogun Dam.

Launched in the mid-1970s to address chronic energy shortages, the $5 billion Rogun project has been described by President Emomali Rahmon as a matter of 'survival.' The country, long plagued by winter electricity deficits, hopes the dam will reduce seasonal shortfalls, improve supply, and potentially export surplus power to neighboring countries.

It takes about two hours to drive from Dushanbe to Rogun. Each bend reveals a new vista: sharp rocks covered with greenery, deep valleys, scattered homes, and the ceaseless river. Trucks hauling stone and heavy materials pass constantly, showing the project is not built on easy terrain. Approaching the construction site, the Rogun Dam appears not as a whole but in pieces: dirt roads, giant equipment, excavated mountains, tunnel entrances, and finally the dam itself.

The first thing visitors notice is not just the dam's height but the enormous scale of the entire structure, like a functioning city suspended between mountains and river. The roar of machinery echoes off the rocks, dust billows everywhere, and workers move as part of a relentless giant machine. The mountain seems to have opened from within. Rogun is not just a wall holding water but a whole network of tunnels, canals, and facilities deep inside the mountain. Water does not just slam into concrete but passes through a complex technical system to tame the Vakhsh River, turning its power into electricity.

The project includes hydraulic tunnels ranging from 1,100 to 1,500 meters long and an underground power plant with six generating units. Italian engineer Andres, from the company Webuild overseeing the main construction, said that upon completion the dam will stand 335 meters tall, among the tallest in the world. The power plant will house six massive turbines with a total capacity of about 3,600 megawatts. Andres explained: 'We are not building against nature, but trying to understand it and harness energy safely.'

For Tajikistan, Rogun is the 'project of the century'—a bet on the country's very geography, turning adversity into strength. However, risks are significant: huge costs, tight management, strict safety requirements, and the delicate balance with downstream countries. The water stored behind the dam does not belong only to Tajikistan but is part of a sensitive regional water system.

On the way back to Dushanbe, the image of the dam lingers: dark tunnels, turbines waiting for water, heavy trucks, and the stubborn river flowing through the rocks. Arriving in the capital, the electric lights along Rudaki Avenue make it hard not to see them differently: electricity is no longer just a common utility but an extension of the distant river, the open mountain, and the tunnels where workers labor invisible to the people.