TURKMENISTAN: DEVELOPMENT VISIBLE IN LEBAP

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 000427 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV ECON SOCI TX SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: DEVELOPMENT VISIBLE IN LEBAP PROVINCE, BUT RESIDENTS' LIVES NOT YET EASIER REF: ASHGABAT 0413 ¶1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified. Not for public Internet ¶2. (SBU) SUMMARY: PolOff toured Turkmenabat city and environs extensively on March 31, as well as visited the banks of the Amu Darya and the Farap border crossing point with Uzbekistan. Turkmenabat's infrastructure is clearly beginning to benefit from the president's rural development program. Nevertheless, residents note that some of their needs are not being taken into consideration. An endless stream of trucks entering and leaving Turkmenistan is likely putting some wear and tear on the Farap borde- point pontoon bridge, while residents report that work is yet to restart at the sites of auto and rail bridges the Ukrainians are supposed to be constructing. Farmers are worried about the water level for irrigation, and are delaying spring planting of their private crops until the weather prognosis is a bit clearer. END SUMMARY. ¶3. (SBU) A drive around the modest town of Turkmenabat revealed that construction is quickly moving forward on facilities named in the president's Rural Development Program. New kindergarten, school, stadium facility, women's hospital, and government conference facility construction sites have cropped up around town as the Lebap provincial government struggles to fulfill the plan (reftel). Local residents viewed the construction generally as a good thing, since it was creating new jobs--at least for the short term--in a region plagued by high unemployment. At the same time, residents expressed some disappointment that there were no initiatives underway to build new housing or to extend water and electrical connections to isolated areas of the province. (NOTE: A resident described his recent visit to Dargan-Ata, about 200 kilometers north of Turkmenabat, where many residents still do not have these utilities in their homes. END NOTE.) ¶4. (SBU) A trip to the southern bank of the Amu Darya, called "Mad River" in Turkmen due to its unpredictable tendency to dramatically change its course, revealed that the water level is extremely low. Local farmers indicated that usually at this time of year the river is quite full, and speculated that its level was low because ice and snow in Tajikistan's Pamir Mountains had not yet melted. When asked what private crops he intends to plant this year, one farmer, who has focused on melon crops in the past, said he would wait a while longer before deciding. He said that farmers were speculating the very cold winter this year meant that they could expect a hot and unusually dry spring and summer. ¶5. (SBU) A wide strip of land generally running parallel to the river is checkered with the modest plots of private farmers who have found unorthodox but effective ways to draw water from the river and channel it to their fields. The lands are all low lying, with half located on the protected side of Soviet-era levees, and half completely subject to the unpredictable whims of the Amu Darya. A local farmer who works land in this area said that as the winter drew down, local authorities, worried about the potential for serious flooding as the frozen river began to thaw, hastily constructed an additional series of rough mini-levees, in the hopes of protecting more of the farms. The down side of the action, however, was that it had buried some of the farms' hand-dug water channels. ¶6. (SBU) Local residents, who are able to get close to the site where Ukrainian construction firms were to have built car and rail bridges several years ago, said they had seen little or no activity around the site, in spite of meetings several months ago between the president and a Ukrainian industrialist who agreed personally to ensure the completion of the troubled project. Turkmenabat residents have heard of no Ukrainian company representatives connected to the project ASHGABAT 00000427 002 OF 002 being in town. (NOTE: Residents stay keenly aware of any foreign company representatives who come here because of the employment potential they bring. The most obvious and numerous foreigners there right now are the Chinese, because of Chinese National Petroleum Company's (CNPC) project on the river bank. END NOTE.) ¶7. (SBU) Meanwhile, the pontoon bridge at the Farap border crossing point, which was damaged by ice floes during the winter, continues to be the only bridge option in the Turkmenabat city area for an endless parade of Turkish, Polish, Iranian and United Arab Emirates trucks transiting Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan loaded with retail goods, cars, and construction materials. (NOTE: The river's low water level could also have a negative impact on the pontoon bridge, given that it is a floating bridge. And although the pontoons are of military construction, constant use by heavy transport trucks may be putting significant wear and tear on the structure. END NOTE.) ¶8. (SBU) COMMENT: Although the construction due to President Berdimuhamedov's Rural Development Program is becoming more evident in Lebap Province, residents are still waiting for developments will improve their lives and livelihoods. Meanwhile, they are continuing to do what they have always done: make do. END COMMENT. HOAGLAND