Focus on the winter energy crisis

Many Tajiks will again have to fend for themselves this winter as temperatures plummet and the state remains unable to meet domestic heating needs through gas and coal, energy officials and experts have told IRIN. Following a post-Soviet economic decline, and a five-year civil war that ended in 1997, interruptions in winter heating have become the norm for Tajiks throughout the country. Despite the constraints, officials said the government was working hard to improve the system and provide residents with heating. The head of the mayoral office's department of engineering systems in the capital, Dushanbe, Abdusami Latipov, told IRIN that all three boiler-houses of the capital had been repaired and were in a good condition. "If gas is supplied regularly, there will be no interruptions in the heating supply," Latipov said. Dependence on Uzbek gas However, Tajikistan’s winter heating is dependent on complicated gas and electricity imports from neighbouring Uzbekistan. Every year, an agreement sees the delivery of Uzbek natural gas to three of the most populated regions of Tajikistan. Now the Uzbek authorities are demanding payment for the gas upfront. The deputy director-general of the Tajik partner, Tajikgaz, Gulrukhsor Jonmahmadova, told IRIN that the main supplier, Uzbektransgaz, had agreed to supply up to 204 million cubic metres of natural gas by the end of December, upon prepayment. But impoverished Tajikistan can ill afford it. With the lowest per capita income of the former Soviet republics, the country has an outstanding energy debt of 81 million somonis, or US $51 million, at today’s exchange rate. Anti-monopoly legislation introduced in April 2000 has made it worse for Tajikgaz, which buys and distributes the Uzbek gas to the Tajik consumer. The legislation fixed the resale charge to April 2000 prices, but since then there has since been a drop in the value of the somoni, from 1.59 to 2.48 somonis to the dollar. "As a result, we incur losses," said Jonmahmadova, adding that they would only be in a position to make prepayment if the Tajik population and enterprises paid their outstanding gas bills. Electricity demand soars With severe disruptions to winter gas supplies, the demand for electricity has soared. The state electric power company, Barqi Tojik, has suffered a similar fate, with a long backlog of debtors unwilling or unable to pay their bills. Barqi Tojik has responded by imposing stiff measures against debtors, and hired permanent staff to coordinate the power supply from autumn to winter, with special groups cutting the electricity supply to defaulters. The chief specialist of the Ministry of Power Engineering, Sultonmurod Yusupov, told IRIN that a load-shedding policy was in operation, with many parts of the country only receiving electricity for five hours a day. But the deputy chairman of Barqi Tojik, Aleksey Silantyev, told IRIN that the regions adhered to their government-set electricity quotas. Over the first 20 days of November, residents in Dushanbe had already exceeded state-ordained quotas by 26 percent. Areas elsewhere in the country experienced similar demand levels for electricity. "In the autumn-winter period, requirements of electric power increases [by] more than twice, while the deficit in the country is about three billion kilowatt-hours," said Silantyev. The three-year Central Asian drought has taken its toll on the energy sector. Low water in the main Tajik river, the Vakhsh, has limited hydroelectricity potential, and forced Tajikistan to purchase electric power from neighbouring Uzbekistan. But once again, a lack of payment by the end-consumers has led to a power deficit in the country. Schools affected Among the hardest hit by the energy shortage will be the state schools. Officials said the lack of gas or coal could force the local authorities to shut down schools, as people would need to stay at home to keep warm. Tatiana Kiryanova, a student of the Kulob University, told IRIN that gas was available only for a few hours of the day, insufficient to heat the concrete buildings. "I live with my parents in one of the suburbs of the city. In winter the only way out of the situation is to wrap ourselves as warmly as possible and sit together in one room. There is no other means of keeping warm in winter," she said. Education officials in Gorno-Badakhshan in the mountainous east of the country said schools would be unable to continue operating due to a shortage of heating fuel. The regional deputy head of education, Abdulasein Khushnazarov, told IRIN that local schools and kindergartens had only stocked half the fuel required for the winter term. With temperatures dropping to below freezing in the high mountains of the Pamir, a considerable part of the fuel had been already burnt, he added. Of a total of 4,200 classrooms in the region, 340 have no heating stoves. With the arrival of cold weather three weeks ago, these schools have been shut down until next spring, contributing to a drop in school attendance. A similar situation prevails in Kulob District in the populous southern Khatlon Province. The head of the Kulob education department, Talab Nozimov, told IRIN half the schools in the district would not be ready for the coming winter, affecting some 40,000 children. Special permission from the Ministry of Education had been obtained to ensure that children finished their curriculum by skipping holidays before the winter disruption. Alternative fuels With the remnants of the Soviet energy system in disarray, local communities have been looking elsewhere for solutions. One enterprising group, the Pamirs' forestry commission, is planning to supply the eastern mountainous region with firewood. Similarly, a sister forestry commission in Gorno-Badakhshan has already stocked and sold firewood to local government departments, secondary schools, hospitals and residents. The Darvaz and Murgab districts in the region have stocked coal for schools, although fuel experts maintain this is only half of what is needed, which is more than 100,000 mt of coal and the same amount of firewood. Some villagers in Khatlon Province have also made their own arrangements. A resident of Sarosiyob village in Kulob District, Said Rahmonov, told IRIN that the local authorities had done nothing to help, despite repeated appeals for assistance with their heating needs. In the meantime, Rahmonov’s small village of 2,000 people had opted to use cow dung, the cheapest and most readily available winter fuel. Rahmonov said that the dung was stored over the summer for use in winter. Until the impoverished republic can reorganise its energy sector and pay off its outstanding energy debt to Uzbekistan, cow dung may remain a common feature of rural Tajik winters for years to come.