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