DUSHANBE, July 28, Asia-Plus -- Speaking to journalists at a meeting in the Republican Press Center in Dushanbe on July 27, Georgy Petrov, the head of the hydropower laboratory at the Institute for Water Problems, Hydropower and Ecology, noted that the present hard situation in Tajikistan’s economy results from electrical power deficiency and “lack of outstripping development of energy, while Tajikistan with its industrial reserves of coal of 672 million tons and reserves of water and power resources estimated at 527 billion kWh per annum has enough potentials for this”.

The news conference was dedicated to problems of using coal to tackle energy problems facing Tajikistan. 

Petrov stressed that a declaration on development and processing of coalfields, rehabilitation and construction of heat and power plants confirms that authorities are interested in expeditious development and processing of the country’s coalfields. 

According to him, an efficient development of the coal industry and industrial use of coal for operation of heat and power plants is possible only after raising electricity rates to 6 cents per one kWh.

Petrov noted that that “coal power” could develop in the country only within the framework of the country’s common energy system as additional power source to hydropower.   

In the meantime, Alikhon Latifi, the director of the Tajik branch of the Central Asian Ecology Center, noted that in Tajikistan, it would more profitable to provide the population with coal free of charge.  According to him, because of an acute shortage of fuel, people are forced to cut down trees in the country.