|
Tajikistan
Energy
Tajikistan's domestic energy supply situation is dominated by
hydroelectric power. The nation is an importer of petroleum-based
fuels, of which only small domestic deposits are being exploited.
Insufficient access to imported oil and natural gas, a persistent
problem under the Soviet system, became more acute after 1991.
The Soviet central government, which determined energy policy
for Tajikistan, saw the republic's rivers as prime locations for
hydroelectric dams. However, Tajikistanis raised serious objections
to the resettlement of villages, the potential for flooding if
an earthquake damaged a dam, and the prospect of pollution from
the factories that would be attracted by cheap electrical power.
Although damming the rivers would increase the supply of water
for irrigation, the central government targeted much of the water
for neighboring Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan rather than for domestic
use. Resistance was especially strong in the case of the Roghun
Dam on the Vakhsh River, initiated in 1976 as the largest dam
of its kind in Central Asia. By 1992 some 75 percent of the country's
electricity came from hydroelectric plants, and in the mid-1990s
Russia provided aid for the construction of a new Roghun hydroelectric
station.
Deposits of coal, petroleum, and natural gas are known to exist
but by the mid-1990s had yet to be developed. In the Soviet era,
the unreliability of fuel sources in other republics resulted
in frequent power shortages. Fuel supply problems mounted during
the transition to a post-Soviet economy, as oil-exporting former
Soviet republics often chose not to abide by the delivery agreements
upon which Tajikistan had depended. Furthermore, beginning in
1993, independent Tajikistan's mounting economic problems left
it unable to pay more than a small fraction of the cost of importing
energy. Energy providers, especially Uzbekistan, responded with
periodic interruptions of deliveries. Irregular delivery disrupted
industrial production, crop harvests, and the flow of electricity
to residential consumers.
Data as of March 1996
|
