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Renewable Energy in Tajikistan

Renewable Energy in TajikistanWorld Bank data shows that Tajikistan, a central-Asian country of 10 million people, is among the poorest nations in the region with a GDP per capita of $1,054 as of 2022. About 10% of the population lives without electricity in isolated mountainous villages that lack the infrastructure to install power lines. Sadly, this number significantly multiplies in winter months. Due to outdated Soviet-era designs, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) believes that energy use is inefficient with Tajikistan using three times more energy than developed countries to increase GDP by one unit. Overall, USAID reports that, as of 2019, 26% of the population lived in poverty, with 11% in extreme poverty.

Nonetheless, it appears that an encouraging future lies ahead. Since independence, the Tajik government has been subsidizing electricity across the nation and the specialization of renewable energy in Tajikistan unveils a frontier of untapped possibilities to eliminate poverty. Given that impoverished households are able to access electricity at more affordable costs, healthier and more efficient forms of cooking, studying and heating become accessible and reduce poverty.

Hydroelectricity

Tajikistan has an extensive dependence on hydroelectricity. The numerous lakes, glaciers and rivers contribute to 98% of the country’s electrical production hydro-based. Furthermore, Tajikistan is home to eight large and multiple small hydropower plants like the notable Nurek and Baipaza HPPs. These two plants alone create 15 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, according to ADB.

All of these factors contribute to the International Energy Agency (IEA) ranking Tajikistan as the eighth highest nation in the world for hydropower potential (527 terawatt-hours as of 2022). In spite of these feats, poverty has not directly decreased as only 4% of this potential is realized.

Variables like the climate crisis, natural disasters and seasonal changes all hinder the potential of renewable energy in Tajikistan to alleviate energy poverty. From 1992 to 2016, the former two negatively impacted 7 million Tajiks and decreased the national GDP by $1.8 billion, according to the IEA. The harsh winters in Tajikistan cause many of its water sources to freeze over, thus not meeting the high demand for heating. Its poor infrastructure and lack of diversification in the energy sector exacerbate this problem. However, as a country, Tajikistan has natural features that are suitable for hydroelectric power. Also, it possesses ample resources for various other forms of renewable energy.

Solar and Wind Power

Unlike hydroelectric power, solar and wind are not limited by the rigid seasons or landscape in Tajikistan. The nation’s potential for both solar and wind power is high. The Agency of Hydrometeorology of Tajikistan states that, given Tajikistan’s geographical location, it is in a “golden belt” for sunshine, according to CABAR.asia. Up to 3,166 hours of sunlight and 300 clear sunny days make the nation ideal for solar energy.

Furthermore, the use of solar panels eliminates problems caused by poor infrastructure or terrain that inhibits the use of electrical wires. Tajikistan’s Ministry of Energy calculates that solar energy can potentially create 3.1 billion kWh per year; more than enough to make up for winter energy shortages, according to CABAR.asia.

Tajikistan made its first solar power plant in 2020 in Murghab, but the current hydroelectric output shadowed its production. Regardless, solar energy is an untapped and promising facet of renewable energy in Tajikistan that can potentially reduce the rate of poverty.

The potential for wind is relatively unknown, but CABAR.asia estimates of its energy production are promising, with the forecasted figure standing at 30 billion-100 billion kWh per year, effectively rivaling the production of some hydroelectric plants.

Solutions Underway

New innovations, stronger enforcement and political regulations can further help actualize the potential for hydroelectric energy. The IEA proposes the need for energy service companies and the production of solar panels and wind turbines while recognizing efforts underway, including the World Bank-operated Central Asia South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade Project (CASA-1000). Alongside Tajikistan’s commitment to UN climate treaties and regulations, such as the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement, these advancements in renewable energy carry the potential to help the fight against national poverty.

Since 2018, Uzbekistan has been helping Tajikistan reconnect with the Central Asian Power System (CAPS) and import energy, according to IEA. Furthermore, USAID and Pamir Energy collaborated on creating the Murghab solar energy plant, which was commissioned in 2020, according to CABAR.asia.

Through this foreign aid intervention, renewable energy in Tajikistan stands a chance to reach its full potential and show the world that going green can create a poverty-free future.

– Sahib Singh
Photo: Unsplash

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4 Nonprofits Fighting Poverty in Tajikistan

Poverty in Tajikistan
Poverty in Tajikistan is significant with approximately 2.9 million of its 9.5 million inhabitants living below the national poverty line. Tajikistan’s low GDP capita further underscores the country’s dismal socioeconomic situation. In 2019, it did not exceed $871, making it the lowest in Central Asia.

Limited employment opportunities have forced the local population either to solicit work in Russia, with remittance payments accounting for up to 50% of the GDP and reaching close to $2 billion in 2016, or turn to agriculture. Farming employs as many as 50% of the workforce, but seeing as almost one in four Tajik households does not possess secure access to food, it has failed to mitigate poverty. Although Tajikistan is an agrarian economy, its mountainous terrain, degraded pastures and such problems as exiguous agricultural knowledge and subpar infrastructure militate against the farmers’ yields and perpetuate food shortages.

However, this has not escaped worldwide attention, and many international nonprofits are currently present in Tajikistan. Their actions are helping people climb out of poverty. These organizations include the following.

Aga Khan Foundation (AKF)

The Aga Khan Foundation is an international nonprofit that has regional projects covering agricultural assistance, educational opportunities and investment in the Tajik energy sector. One of its pilot initiatives was the First Microfinance Bank Tajikistan. Since its creation in 2003, it has generated 3,500 jobs across the country and financed more than 20,000 clients.

Equally worth mentioning is its Mountain Societies Development Support Program, working with 300,000 farmers to maximize crop yields by managing resources better and to adapt to floods and landslides, which otherwise displace 100,000 villagers each year.

Recipients could obtain seeds from one of the AKF’s 67 agricultural input revolving funds. To support these positive developments, this NGO has financed 1,600 rural infrastructure projects, expanding farmers’ access to markets away from their remote communities and helping 108,000 rural Tajiks gain confidence in their ability to feed themselves both sufficiently and regularly.

Since combatting poverty in Tajikistan cannot occur without education, it undertook steps toward broadening the local children’s learning opportunities. Besides teaching students English through its Learning Support Program and enhancing their leadership skills at summer camps, the AKF manages its own school. The Aga Khan Lycée, based in Khorog, a town populated by no more than 30,000 people, serves 1,000 pupils. With 180 of them enrolled in scholarships, many of those who attend this school and receive a good education, come from poor or disadvantaged families.

Operation Mercy

Operation Mercy has headquarters in Sweden and collaborates with Tajik farmers to improve their yields. More specifically, it targets the nation’s apple growers and trains them in orchard management and soil development, while also providing infrastructural support by procuring equipment and building greenhouses. Thanks to its aid, one farmer from the Pamir mountains, where cultivating anything but root vegetables was previously an unattainable dream, collected more than 700 kilograms of vegetables in a single year.

DVV International

Operating in Tajikistan since 2003, DVV International belongs to the German Adult Education Association and focuses on providing disadvantaged groups, such as former prisoners, people with special needs or impoverished youths with high-quality vocational training. These are among the most vulnerable to poverty in Tajikistan, seeing that many lack the skills to find permanent jobs and some of them may not even partake in agricultural activities. In the country’s capital, Dushanbe, this international nonprofit offers training courses as well as career guidance.

Furthermore, it has partnered with the Tajik Adult Education Association and numerous local NGOs to staff schools and training centers and equip them with the required materials. Its Promotion of Social Change and Inclusive Education scheme saw the group organize 18 peer-to-peer vocational training activities for disabled youths. It also conducted small business development courses and gave business start-up grants to aspiring young entrepreneurs in Tajikistan’s Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region as part of its YES to Change project, which was realized between 2015 and 2018 with an estimated budget of $727,500.

Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED)

ACTED is a French-based international nonprofit that boasts four offices in different towns across Tajikistan and works primarily on disaster aversion and preparation. Its activists assist farmers by teaching them watershed management techniques and advising them on how to protect their crops from floods.

In the country’s Sughd region, containing more than 3 million hectares of pasture lands, ACTED continues to support measures to prevent pasture degradation, whereas in other herding-reliant provinces, it has organized a Policy Forum for herders and authorities to discuss this issue and decide upon collective action. Albeit not necessarily quantifiable, the organization’s contribution is tangible, as it helps forestall the impoverishment of even more Tajiks from climatic disasters and land mismanagement.

Many Tajiks witness extreme poverty, but the international community and international nonprofits, in particular, are striving to improve the situation. Whether through promoting better farming techniques, broadening vocational training opportunities or helping eschew natural disasters and their dire consequences, NGOs are making a valuable contribution to eradicating poverty in Tajikistan.

– Dan Mikhaylov
Photo: Flickr

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10 Facts About Poverty in Tajikistan

poverty in TajikistanNestled in between Afghanistan, China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, Tajikistan sits in Central Asia among its sprawling mountain range. In the past decade, major oil and natural gas reserves have been found in Tajikistan which has kindled the hope of stimulating the nation’s struggling economy and of shifting their economic power back to them. As of 2018, around 27.4% of the population in Tajikistan lived below the national poverty line. Here are 10 facts about poverty in Tajikistan.

10 Facts About Poverty in Tajikistan

  1. Regions in Poverty: Not all regions of the country are grappling with poverty to the same extent. In the northwest region of Sugd, the poverty rate was 17.5% in 2018. In the region just below, the Districts of Republican Subordination, that rate was almost doubled at 33.2%.
  2. Agriculture: Poverty seems to affect rural areas of Tajikistan more severely than urban areas. Farming cotton, one of Tajikistan’s main cash crops, does very little for mitigating poverty levels or maneuvering individuals out of poverty. However, those with non-agricultural jobs in urban areas like the capital, Dushanbe, can go to Russia to find work. This is a common occurrence. As of 2018, the poverty rate in urban Tajikistan stood at about 21.5%, whereas the rate for rural Tajikistan was at 30.2%.
  3. Poverty Reduction: The rate of poverty reduction in Tajikistan has decreased. From 2000 to 2015, the rate of poverty dropped from 83% to 31%. Since 2014, the national poverty rate has slowed to dropping by 1% each year.
  4. Limited Job Creation and Wage Growth: One can attribute this slowing rate of poverty reduction to a lack of job creation and stagnating wage growth. With a lack of new and improved jobs to stimulate the economy, much of the workforce turns to employment in Russia; this does little to stimulate Tajikistan’s own economy.
  5. Households: A reported 75% of households have concerns about meeting their family’s basic necessities over the next year. Tajikistan is the poorest and most distant of the independent former Soviet Union states. In the first nationally conducted survey since the war ceased and Tajikistan gained its independence, studies found that more than 95% of households failed to meet the minimum amount of food consumption to be considered appropriately sustained.
  6. Child Malnutrition: Tajikistan has a prevalence of child malnutrition and stunting; this is due to inconsistent access to clean water and food. Many households spend more than they can truly afford to obtain drinking water. For the 64% of people in Tajikistan living below the national poverty line, this means incurring extra expenses while already making under $2 a day.
  7. Housing: For every 1,000 inhabitants, there are only 163 places to live. Tajikistan has the lowest housing stock in the Europe and Central Asia regions at 1.23 million units. This can largely due to the government no longer being able to provide public housing, while private owners have no extra money to invest in or maintain the upkeep of properties.
  8. Challenges for Youth: About 35% of Tajikistan’s population is under the age of 15. In the world’s wealthier nations, this number hovers at about 17%. A disproportionate amount of youth in the population means more problems for the burgeoning workforce as they struggle to earn an income: especially in a place where the economy may not be ready to respond. This could further the stagnation of Tajikistan’s economy, with frustrated young workers leaving to find work in other nations, as many are already doing.
  9. Employment in Russia: As many as 40% of Tajiks in Russia may be working illegally. Tajikistan relies on remittances from Russia. This accompanies Russia’s increasingly strict administrative processes for foreigners seeking work. Due to these two conditions, The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs’ reported number of 1 million Tajiks working in Russia per year is questionably low. Between 30% and 40% of households in Tajikistan have at least one member of the family working abroad.
  10. Literacy: The literacy rate in Tajikistan is 99.8% as of 2015. Primary education is compulsory and literacy is high, though the skill level in youths has been decreasing. This is due to economic needs calling the younger population away from their education in search of an income to help meet their daily needs.

Looking Ahead

Tajikistan has been climbing its way out of poverty since it has gained its independence in 1991. However, the nation’s over-reliance on remittances has allowed for its own economy to stagnate. This has resulted in a hungry workforce and few jobs to supply them. Groups like Gurdofarid work to try and empower the Tajik workforce; they teach women vocational skills that are necessary for them to become employed in their own country.

– Catherine Lin
Photo: Flickr

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5 Things to Know About Poverty in Tajikistan

Poverty in Tajikistan

Poverty in Tajikistan remains a problem. Tajikistan is frequently cited as the poorest former Soviet republic, with one of the world’s lowest GDPs per capita (ranked 192). While it is a place that Americans do not hear about often, USAID has been busy in the country of just over eight million inhabitants for more than 20 years, almost as long as Tajikistan has been a sovereign nation.

 

Poverty in Tajikistan: Key Facts

 

1. Proportional to GDP, Tajikistan has one of the largest remittance economies in the world.

Due to a scarcity of secure employment opportunities, which contributes greatly to poverty in Tajikistan, more than one million Tajik citizens leave the country searching for work. The money that these Tajiks send home equals more than half of the entire country’s GDP. The vast majority of these migrants—90 percent—travel to Russia.

2. Poor infrastructure stagnates the Tajik economy.

Tajikistan is landlocked and sits in the northwestern Himalayas, one of the most mountainous regions on the planet, making transportation a challenge. Trade with other nations, which is important to the country’s economy, relies on a dilapidated railway system. The diminutive electricity market means energy infrastructure is also lacking. Power shortages and outages are rampant, especially during the winter.

The future for Tajikistan’s infrastructure may, however, be looking up due to foreign investment, which may alleviate some of the poverty in Tajikistan. Recently, Chinese investors funded new road construction in Dushanbe, the capital. Russia and Iran have also invested in hydroelectric plants, including a dam on the Vakhsh River that may become the world’s largest.

3. Tuberculosis is a growing public health problem.

Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is disproportionately high in many central Asian countries, including Tajikistan. The country’s healthcare system is ill equipped to respond to this issue, lacking adequate information systems and human resources. Most funds for fighting TB come from international assistance.

MDR-TB is a complicated public health challenge, however, the World Health Organization (WHO) has partnered with the government and aid groups to improve and monitor Tajikistan’s ability to treat TB and stave off MDR-TB.

4. Most of the population does not have access to clean water.

Nearly 60 percent of Tajik citizens rely on unsanitary water supplies. Many depend on irrigation ditches for drinking water, meaning waterborne diseases are common. Diarrhea is the sixth leading cause of death in children under five.

While these statistics may seem bleak, water quality is a relatively straightforward issue to tackle. USAID has made notable strides in providing better access to clean water, one of its main focuses in Tajikistan. According to its website, USAID has “established 56 community-level water users’ associations,” helping the Tajik weather and water forecasting agency better manage the country’s vast supply of fresh water.

5. The civil war destroyed one out of five schools in the country.

Funding for education decreased drastically after Tajikistan became independent from the Soviet Union in 1992. The following five years of fighting destroyed or damaged a significant portion of the country’s schools. Naturally, such collateral destruction has contributed to the precarious state of the education system.

Since the fighting, the country has either struggled to or failed to revive school systems. According to the latest reports from UNICEF, schools are overcrowded, underfunded and understaffed, with many teachers working triple shifts. Furthermore, dropout rates are high, especially for girls.

The state of Tajikistan’s education system leaves much to be desired. However, organizations like USAID and UNICEF have partnered with the Tajik government. They are determined to nurture this fragile system to a point where it can sustain itself, mainly by focusing on preventing dropouts and improving equity and access.

In many ways, Tajikistan seems to lag behind its neighbors in the Central Asian region. With a strong memory of war and political upheaval, coupled with uncompromising geography, the country has struggled to develop.

But international aid organizations have shown great ambition and, partnered with the Tajik government, achieved tangible successes in reducing poverty in Tajikistan and its burdens. Likewise, international investment from the private sector suggests promise and hope for a society that has much to gain.

– Charlie Tomb

Photo: Pixabay