Tajikistan fights crisis with electricity rations

DUSHANBE (Reuters) - Tajikistan introduced power rationing on Tuesday, limiting electricity supplies to three hours a day in most parts of the impoverished nation as it struggles to cope with a deepening energy deficit.

The ex-Soviet nation, which depends on power imports to meet domestic demand, said it had to introduce limits on consumption following a cut-off in supplies from neighbouring Uzbekistan.

The state energy company Barki Tochik said it would limit daily supplies to 15 hours in the capital city and just three hours elsewhere across a nation of seven million.

"Starting Dec. 27 Uzbekistan stopped transit of electricity through its territory," Barki Tochik said without explaining why Uzbekistan had cut off supplies. Uzbek officials declined to comment.

Power rationing is a recurring problem in Tajikistan but this year it is compounded by broader economic woes due to falling global prices for its key aluminium exports and fewer job opportunities in Russia where many Tajik labourers work.

Social tensions in Tajikistan have worried Western nations which see stability in Central Asia as key to maintaining regional security and developing safer alternative supply routes for NATO equipment heading to Afghanistan.