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Karez

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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Karez

 

(Persian; literally, an underground irrigation channel), an underground structure for collecting groundwater and conveying it to the surface. Such structures are in use in the mountainous and foothill areas of Middle Asia and Transcaucasia. Water from a karez is used for water supply and irrigation.

A karez consists of one or more water-catchment tunnels 1.0–1.4 m high and 0.5–0.6 m wide, with reinforced walls laid through a water-bearing horizon, as well as vertical ventilation wells and a water tunnel connected to a discharge channel. Karez tunnels can be as much as several kilometers long. The average yield of a water-catchment tunnel is 0.3–0.6 liters per sec per meter of the tunnel.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive
Kang Bing, China Daily's editor-in-chief, drinks from an underground stream at the Karez Musuem in Turpan
Check out the Al Karez Resort Facebook page or call 03-063-485 or 03-871-490.
There is no law in Balochistan to regulate the use of water from tube wells or surface wells within the vicinity of karezes. In some areas there was a riwaj that no well should be allowed to dug close to the karez mother well (250 yards in case of soft land and 500 yards for stoney land).
The development of its is important for poverty alleviation in rural areas, said Focal Person PATRIP-Foundation, while talking to livestock farmers during a free mobile veterinary camp set-up in Pak-Afghan border area Qamar Din Karez to facilitate the livestock farmers.
Taliban fighters had attacked the police check post named Karez Shekhan in Sheb Koh district late Thursday night.
According to a statement by the ministry, a group of Taliban insurgents launched coordinated attack on a police check post in the village of Karez located in central areas of Farah Province, Khaama Press reported.
He gave the example of the Karez system in Balochistan which survived for two thousand years but is now being destroyed by the advent of tube wells and other modern systems.
"The Peshmerga forces managed to regain control of the villages (Fiqirok, Kirkamish, Kopanki, Hanka, Karez, Ksrig, Large Brochure, Small Brochure ), in addition to controling of the strategic crossroad that connects Mosul, Kski, and Aowain in Zammar.
Sayed Murad Sadat, district governor of Nawzad, has confirmed the government forces control only one of the 360 karez (karez is a horizontal irrigation tunnel) and the office of the district governor.
The blast occurred in the Sauf Wa Karez area of the district on Thursday, the deputy police chief for Daikundi said.
The enemies used bunkers and an intricate karez system to attack the Marines.
Add to that the collapse of the ancient underground water cisterns--known as the karez system, frequent droughts, the receding snow melt from the Hindu Kush, and an insurgency that now sees control of water as a weapon and the prospects for a stable and flourishing agrarian society as Afghanistan moves to transition in 2014, look grim indeed.
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