Image web11tajikinfra11.jpg from the Infrastructure challenges gallery

The first thing one notices, that defines almost all aspects of the trip, is the challenge of travel. Tajikistan is nearly all mountain (90-95%, according to my guide). Many of the passes are only open from June through October, many roads not traversable the remainder of the year. The roads that I travelled on were largely one car wide, making it rather tricky when meeting oncoming traffic. This was made trickier by the precarious positioning of the roads, often high on a mountainside, with no barriers. In places, it looked like gigantic piles of rocks had simply been dug up in some other land and deposited here one after or on top of another – and then, across the terrain, on mountainsides that looked for all the world like scree, they built a road. And we were driving on it. Infrastructure is, thankfully, being improved. A tunnel is being built in the north, so that Dushanbe, the capital, will be connected all year round to the northern mountain regions and onto Uzbekistan; roads are being widened all over the map, making driving tough going now (constant road blockages), but making the future seemingly better; a border for goods has been opened to China in the far east of the country, where the Pamir Highway, built during Soviet times, already traverses the desolate landscape. But so much still remains undeveloped.
Electricity is slowly being upgraded and there is talk of more hydroelectric dams on the rivers that eventually feed the Amu Darya River. The need for local electricity development was highlighted in winter 2007-08, the coldest in countless years, which resulted in severe hardship for thousands – lack of food, electricity, and heat. Maternity hospitals were particularly hard hit. But the plans for the dams also touch upon local politics and environmental issues – the Amu Darya River, which used to feed the Aral Sea, can no longer replenish its waters, and the Sea has shrunk dramatically. Yet this water is sorely needed by those along its route for watering crops – crops like cotton, which is tragically linked to the Aral Sea disaster.

infrastructure-challenges: The first thing one notices, that defines almost all aspects of the trip, is the challenge of travel. Tajikistan is nearly all mountain (90-95%, according to my guide). Many of the passes are only open from June through October, many roads not traversable the remainder of the year. The roads that I travelled on were largely one car wide, making it rather tricky when meeting oncoming traffic. This was made trickier by the precarious positioning of the roads, often high on a mountainside, with no barriers. In places, it looked like gigantic piles of rocks had simply been dug up in some other land and deposited here one after or on top of another – and then, across the terrain, on mountainsides that looked for all the world like scree, they built a road. And we were driving on it. Infrastructure is, thankfully, being improved. A tunnel is being built in the north, so that Dushanbe, the capital, will be connected all year round to the northern mountain regions and onto Uzbekistan; roads are being widened all over the map, making driving tough going now (constant road blockages), but making the future seemingly better; a border for goods has been opened to China in the far east of the country, where the Pamir Highway, built during Soviet times, already traverses the desolate landscape. But so much still remains undeveloped. Electricity is slowly being upgraded and there is talk of more hydroelectric dams on the rivers that eventually feed the Amu Darya River. The need for local electricity development was highlighted in winter 2007-08, the coldest in countless years, which resulted in severe hardship for thousands – lack of food, electricity, and heat. Maternity hospitals were particularly hard hit. But the plans for the dams also touch upon local politics and environmental issues – the Amu Darya River, which used to feed the Aral Sea, can no longer replenish its waters, and the Sea has shrunk dramatically. Yet this water is sorely needed by those along its route for watering crops – crops like cotton, which is tragically linked to the Aral Sea disaster.