DUSHANBE, Tajikistan (AP) — Tajikistan has extended severe seasonal electricity rationing across the country as the main hydropower reservoir hovers at dangerously low levels.
Households across most of the mountainous ex-Soviet nation are being provided with only two hours of electricity per day.
In the capital, Dushanbe, electricity is being cut off from 10:30 p.m. to 5 a.m.
Extensive rolling blackouts are regularly imposed over the winter months, but are normally lifted as rivers begin to swell in the spring.
Barki Tajik power company spokesman Nozirdzhon Yodgorov said Thursday that the Vakhsh River is flowing into the Nurek reservoir at levels significantly lower than last year.
Tajikistan relies almost completely on hydropower for its electricity needs.
