Iran and Turkmenistan have agreed to build a US$168M dam on a river bordering the two countries.

Officials from the two countries signed an agreement in September for the construction of the Friendship dam on the Tajan river. The river is called Tajan or Hariroud in Iran and Tedzhen in Turkmenistan. The 78m high dam, which will take five years to build, will hold 1.25B m3 of water, allowing the irrigation of 20,000ha of land in each country.

Tehran and Ashgabat also agreed to share equally the dam’s costs and the river’s waters.