Tajikistan rations power as dry autumn hits hydroelectric plants

Tajikistan has imposed restrictions on energy consumption, including for some industrial users, because of low water levels at hydroelectric power plants, authorities in the Central Asian country announced this week.

Tajikistan has imposed restrictions on energy consumption, including for some industrial users, because of low water levels at hydroelectric power plants, authorities in the Central Asian country announced this week. The economy ministry told Reuters that electricity consumers representing almost 20% of Tajikistan's GDP would be affected.

Most street lights will be turned off, and power supplies to public sector institutions will be switched off outside working hours. Tajikistan, the poorest of the Soviet Union's successor states, with a population of nearly 11 million, faces power shortages most years.

But an unusually warm and dry autumn in Central Asia has left water levels in the region's hydroelectric plants dangerously low. Authorities in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan have imposed similar limits on power usage, turning streets lights off and ordering restaurants and bars in the capital, Bishkek, to close at night.

The reservoir at Tajikistan's Nurek Hydroelectric Power Station, which generates 70% of its electricity, is 3.5 metres (11.5 feet) below its level for the same period in 2024. Tajikistan's energy ministry told Reuters that it is seeking to import electricity from Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.

Last Friday, worshippers at the main mosques in the Tajik capital Dushanbe, as well as in Tashkent, the capital of neighbouring Uzbekistan, held prayers asking for rain.

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