Altyn Asyr (Golden Age) Turkmen Lake: a drainage-water reservoir in the Karakum

A presidential decision of 2000 under Saparmurat Niyazov started construction of a lake in the Karashor (Garashor) depression, in the central and northern Karakum on the border of Ahal and Dashoguz provinces, 350 km north of Ashgabat, according to FAO. The first stage was opened by Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov on 15 July 2009. According to FAO's AQUASTAT profile (2012 version), the lake is to be filled through the Great Turkmen Collector from the south and the Dashoguz Collector from the north, 'with a combined length of over 1 000 km'; its capacity is 'foreseen to be 150 km3, with a surface area of 3 500 km2 and a depth of 130 m'; and 'Starting in 2009, the collectors have been diverting up to 10 km3 of saline drainage water to the lake annually'. The project aims to stop drainage discharge into the Amu Darya.

AP reported on 16 July 2009 a planned area of 770 square miles, a depth of around 230 feet, a volume of more than 4,600 billion cubic feet, 1,650 miles of tributary canals, a cost of 'up to $4.5 billion' and about 15 years to fill. Çakır (2016), drawing on work as an Islamic Development Bank expert, gave a design capacity of 132 km³ with an annual average flow of 11 km³, a Dashoguz branch carrying 210 m³/s over 383.8 km and a 720 km main drainage canal across the Karakum. A Turkmen embassy news item (dated 30 May, year not given) said the Academy of Sciences' Institute of Chemistry had completed hydrochemical studies and produced salinity maps, that the system had 2,859 km of drainage collectors and 1,553 km of canals, and that water was diverted 'to ecologically safe place – the Garashor Hollow', without giving salinity values.

Çakır (2016) reported drainage water salinity measured in laboratories of the Turkmen ministry and the Turkmensuvylymtaslama Institute, from data of the 1990s–2000s: an average of 2.31–4.22 g/l in the Dashoguz collectors, 6.15–15.0 g/l in the Mary region collectors ('unusable for the purposes of irrigation') and 2.0–20.0 g/l in the Ahal collectors, with total national drainage water of 5.6–6.0 km³ a year. FAO (2012), citing Stanchin and Lerman (2006), recorded that foreign experts 'claim that the lake water will simply disappear through evaporation under the fierce desert sun, leaving salt sediments that will poison the entire area', and that at the existing drainage-fed Sarykamysh lake of about 8 km³ there is 'permanent accumulation of pollutant salt. which leads to the degradation of flora and fauna'. Evaporation from water surfaces is 1000–2300 mm a year against rainfall of 76–380 mm (Çakır 2016), a national figure.

Local water experts, as recorded by FAO, argued that the lake would 'reclaim 450 000 ha of waterlogged land, dramatically reduce salinization in the Amu Darya' and allow recycling after partial desalination. In 2009 critics in Turkmenistan, whose names IWPR withheld for security reasons, said the damage would exceed the benefit; one Ashgabat analyst said, 'The benefits of constructing the Turkmen lake are like ankle-high water, whereas the damage will be knee-high.' A Karakalpakstan environmentalist asked IWPR how a desert lake could be 'more important than the lives of millions of people'. Berdimuhamedov said at the opening: 'We have brought new life to these once-lifeless sands.'

On cost, IWPR reported on 31 July 2009 that USD 4 billion was cited in 2002 and later rose to USD 6.5 billion, and that the government had been 'reticent' about precise spending. AP gave 'up to $4.5 billion' and Circle of Blue 'about $4.5 billion of investment', both in July 2009. A Turkmen embassy item (dated 7 January, year not given) said the depression 'currently holds about 580 million cubic meters' and that the president ordered the lake's water volume and quality to be studied. The Islamic Development Bank provided 'technical and financial support' for Çakır's expert stay, with no amount given. The last state-organised conference and excursion at the lake on record took place on 8 May 2019.