AP News, January 29th, 2008
With electricity reserves depleted, officials in impoverished Tajikistan — where residents are enduring one of the coldest winters in 25 years — said Tuesday they would be forced to cut power to much of the country.
Supplies already have been cut off in many rural areas and are severely rationed in the capital, Dushanbe. Some residents are being limited to one to two hours of electricity a day, and the state-owned power company warned of more cuts.
Widespread shortages are a recurrent problem in Tajikistan, but a sharp drop in water levels at the Nurek reservoir, which powers a key hydroelectric plant, triggered the current crisis. Tajikistan is rich in water resources, but the unusually cold weather has frozen rivers flowing into the Nurek reservoir.
Remaining water reserves will last only until Feb. 10, said Sharifkhon Samiyev, head of Barki Tojik, the national power company.
The capital will be allotted up to 12 million kilowatt hours per day of electricity to "vitally important industries" and some homes, the company said.
Authorities expect supplies to return to normal in early March, when water levels rise with the spring thaw.
Samiyev said Tajikistan's best hope is electricity from its energy-rich neighbor, Turkmenistan. However, Turkmenistan has significantly reduced power supplies to Tajikistan in recent weeks because of its own soaring domestic demand for electricity.
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan's neighbor to the north, offered meager relief: 500,000 kilowatt hours per day, Barki Tojik said.
Tajikistan, one of the poorest of the ex-Soviet nations, is experiencing the coldest winter in 25 years, according to the state Meteorological Agency, with temperatures averaging from 23 to 5 F for weeks on end.
