"Claims are being made that the implementation of HPP projects in Tajikistan will cause damage to its neighbors. I would like to reiterate that such claims are totally unfounded," Rakhmon said in his annual address to both houses of the country’s parliament.

The biggest river in Central Asia, Amu Darya, starts in Tajikistan. About two thirds of all water resources in the region are formed in this country.

Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, which are located downstream, fear that the construction of big HPPs in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan will enable these countries to regulate the flow of the river and that filling large water storage facilities of the new HPPs will lead to a sharp decrease of flow and the death of agriculture in downstream areas.

"Without these water storage facilities that will be built in the upstream countries there will be no water supply to crop areas and no irrigation of derelict lands," the president said.

"This has been unconditionally proved by independent experts and renowned European scientists," he said.

Rakhmon asked the United Nations and other international organizations to help the region solve this problem.

"Otherwise, water will become the region’s main problem in the near future," the Tajik president said.