The communities surrounding the Tajik town Rushan have been living without electricity for a long time. The harsh climate of the mountainous Badakhshan region makes it even harder for people to function without electricity. For heating, cooking, and washing, the population has to collect large amounts of firewood, a time-consuming and arduous task often carried out by women. Fetching firewood can cost people three to up to seven hours of intense physical work each day.
The “Rushan I Cross-Border Energy” project was co-financed by the German Federal Foreign Office and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was completed in September 2019 by PATRIP’s longstanding partner, the Aga Khan Development Network, and has brought electricity to 24 villages at the Tajik/Afghan border. More details about the project implementation can be found here.
