Power and Water Cuts Threaten Tourist Zone
Power and Water Cuts Threaten Tourist Zone
The western Turkmen region where the authorities are planning to establish a tourist zone is suffering from severe water and power shortages, according to NBCentralAsia observers.
In the first two weeks of August, a series of worrying reports came from the Balkan region that cuts to electricity and drinking water supplies were becoming increasingly frequent, making life hard for locals in the hot summer weather.
“Week-long water and power supply failures have become regular,” said one commentator.
Local NBCA analysts say that the development could threaten the authorities’ plan to create the Avaza national tourist zone in Turkmenbashi, the administrative centre of the region.
Last year, President Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov revealed a strategic plan to create Avaza, which will require one billion US dollars of investment.
Turkmenbashi, a city on the coast of Caspian Sea, which lies 560 kilometres west of Ashgabat, was chosen for the tourist zone, because the authorities said its transport links and large petrol refinery made it the most attractive site for foreign investors.
However, according to residents of Turkmenbashi, several water processing plants have been put out of action in recent weeks due to cuts in power.
In June, drinking water deliveries ground to a halt after the supply to the city’s 100,000 residents dried up.
The appeals of Balkan residents to the authorities have yielded no results.
“Now the [city’s residents are] using water which has been collected in [makeshift vessels] but this is clearly not enough,” one local said.
Many citizens from the region accuse the authorities of being wasteful with water when irrigating cotton fields.
Energy specialists blame the shortages on an “extremely outdated and damaged” water-supply network, as well as the condition of the Turkmenbashi power station, which was built in 1965, and struggles to keep up with demand.
Several years ago, this power station met the energy needs of western Turkmenistan, as well as supplementing the power supplies of neighbouring Central Asian states.
“Currently, most energy produced is exported to Iran and Turkey, which results in the severe electricity deficiency in Balkan region,” said an energy specialist.
Another engineer who did not want to be named told NBCA that the situation is “close to critical”.
Energy shortages are made worse, he said, because local authorities allow private bakeries, stores and small manufactures to connect to the city electricity supply illegally, in exchange for bribes.
This leads to the system being overloaded and is creating long-lasting power failures in the Balkan region.
“We will face [another] crisis during autumn and winter [as a result of this] negligent attitude,” said the engineer.
As a result, the authorities’ plans to create the Avaza zone, which will require a stable supply of electricity, do not look promising, he added.
(NBCentralAsia is an IWPR-funded project to create a multilingual news analysis and comment service for Central Asia, drawing on the expertise of a broad range of political observers across the region. The project ran from August 2006 to September 2007, covering all five regional states. With new funding, the service is resuming, covering only Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan for the moment).
In the first two weeks of August, a series of worrying reports came from the Balkan region that cuts to electricity and drinking water supplies were becoming increasingly frequent, making life hard for locals in the hot summer weather.
“Week-long water and power supply failures have become regular,” said one commentator.
Local NBCA analysts say that the development could threaten the authorities’ plan to create the Avaza national tourist zone in Turkmenbashi, the administrative centre of the region.
Last year, President Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov revealed a strategic plan to create Avaza, which will require one billion US dollars of investment.
Turkmenbashi, a city on the coast of Caspian Sea, which lies 560 kilometres west of Ashgabat, was chosen for the tourist zone, because the authorities said its transport links and large petrol refinery made it the most attractive site for foreign investors.
However, according to residents of Turkmenbashi, several water processing plants have been put out of action in recent weeks due to cuts in power.
In June, drinking water deliveries ground to a halt after the supply to the city’s 100,000 residents dried up.
The appeals of Balkan residents to the authorities have yielded no results.
“Now the [city’s residents are] using water which has been collected in [makeshift vessels] but this is clearly not enough,” one local said.
Many citizens from the region accuse the authorities of being wasteful with water when irrigating cotton fields.
Energy specialists blame the shortages on an “extremely outdated and damaged” water-supply network, as well as the condition of the Turkmenbashi power station, which was built in 1965, and struggles to keep up with demand.
Several years ago, this power station met the energy needs of western Turkmenistan, as well as supplementing the power supplies of neighbouring Central Asian states.
“Currently, most energy produced is exported to Iran and Turkey, which results in the severe electricity deficiency in Balkan region,” said an energy specialist.
Another engineer who did not want to be named told NBCA that the situation is “close to critical”.
Energy shortages are made worse, he said, because local authorities allow private bakeries, stores and small manufactures to connect to the city electricity supply illegally, in exchange for bribes.
This leads to the system being overloaded and is creating long-lasting power failures in the Balkan region.
“We will face [another] crisis during autumn and winter [as a result of this] negligent attitude,” said the engineer.
As a result, the authorities’ plans to create the Avaza zone, which will require a stable supply of electricity, do not look promising, he added.
(NBCentralAsia is an IWPR-funded project to create a multilingual news analysis and comment service for Central Asia, drawing on the expertise of a broad range of political observers across the region. The project ran from August 2006 to September 2007, covering all five regional states. With new funding, the service is resuming, covering only Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan for the moment).
