Bringing Clean Energy and Co-Benefits to Remote Communities in Tajikistan and Afghanistan
Format
Overview
This case study shows how clean, affordable and reliable electricity can be provided to thousands of people even in the poorest, most remote and difficult terrains. It illustrates how this simultaneously reduces energy poverty and carbon emissions while generating multiple co-benefits, including increased incomes, improved food security and community well-being, reduced deforestation, improved health from removing smoke from biofuels from homes, and improved healthcare and educational outcomes.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
After the collapse of the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1991 and the ensuing five-year civil war, Tajikistan’s electricity infrastructure was left in a weak state. The Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO), also known as Viloyati Mukhtori Kuhistoni Badakhshon (VMKB), is a remote mountainous area in the Pamir Mountains in the east of the country, bordering Afghanistan, China and the Kyrgyz Republic. VMKB is Tajikistan’s largest region, making up 47% of the country’s area, and also the poorest, with 54.5% of its population living below the poverty line.