Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08ASHGABAT45
2008-01-10 06:24:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Ashgabat
Cable title:  

TURKMENISTAN: BITTER COLD SNAP KNOCKS ASHGABAT FOR

Tags:  PGOV SOCI TX 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO8391
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHDF RUEHIK RUEHLH RUEHLN RUEHLZ
RUEHPW RUEHROV RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHAH #0045/01 0100624
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 100624Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0040
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA PRIORITY 3225
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING PRIORITY 1040
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 0911
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL PRIORITY 1488
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE PRIORITY 2090
RHMFIUU/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 1373
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ASHGABAT 000045 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA/CEN

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV SOCI TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: BITTER COLD SNAP KNOCKS ASHGABAT FOR
A LOOP

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ASHGABAT 000045

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA/CEN

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV SOCI TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: BITTER COLD SNAP KNOCKS ASHGABAT FOR
A LOOP


1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified. Not for public Internet.


2. (SBU) SUMMARY: Severe cold weather hit Ashgabat and the
rest of Central Asia on January 6, and has been challenging
the government's ability to keep the city up and operating.
The weather has been causing damage to the city's
infrastructure, and government authorities are scrambling to
ensure the uninterrupted availability of energy resources for
domestic consumption. Old and crumbling infrastructure,
combined with unwise energy usage practices, are causing
irritation among residents, who expect to be provided with
state subsidized energy regardless the circumstances.
Corruption, in its turn, is also playing a role in disrupting
the city's routine. All of this is making city and even
national authorities look pretty bad in the eyes of those who
live here. END SUMMARY.


3. (SBU) Since January 6, when the temperature at dawn was
5 F,the capital has descended into the worst freeze it has
seen in 40 years, according to longtime residents. January
temperatures range typically from the upper 20s F at night
and 30s or 40s F during the day. Worse, as of January 9,
Internet weather reports have lowered their temperature
forcasts for the approaching January 11-13 weekend in
Ashgabat to range between a low of 4 F and a high of 27 F.
The coldest day is forecast for January 12, when the city can
expect a low of 4 degrees F and a high of just 18 F.

THE ENERGY CAPITAL BECOMES ENERGY-CHALLENGED


4. (SBU) Many cities around the world are used to handling
the problems intrinsic to this kind of cold, but Ashgabat,
being a desert capital, is totally unprepared.
State-controlled press has totally avoided reports on the
negative effects of the cold weather, but did report that the
state,s export of electricity to Tajikistan was cut in half.
Events this week show that the Turkmen government is
scrambling to keep up its deliveries of gas and electricity
to a population that is used to having these subsidized
resources in limitless supply (NOTE: Although the fact that
the supply does not depend on the market has led to periodic
power outages through the years. END NOTE.). Some residents
have joked that if the government would just shut off the
prevalent outdoor lighting that makes the ever-increasing

number of Ashgabat's white marble buildings visible from
space, there would be enough electricity to keep everyone
warm.


5. (SBU) No one thought to turn off the city's ubiquitous
fountains. During the coldest temperatures they kept spewing
water until they froze solid, although some created
spectacular free-form ice structures in the process.


6. (SBU) Water mains that supply the city with water have
been rupturing, and short-term black-outs in portions of the
city have continuously been reported since January 7. Both
the chancery and the Ashgabat International School, buildings
designed for short-term use in a desert environment, have had
difficulties maintaining heat. The problem is that heating
systems were designed to raise the temperature 35 degrees F
to room temperature, but not from near zero to room
temprature. The school remained closed on January 7 and 8
while alternative heating was installed, and the chancery was
able to repair its heating system. Some post housing, such
as the homes in the Ustay compound, continue to have serious
problems with sub-terrainian water lines freezing.

CORRUPTION REVEALS ITS UGLY FACE


7. (SBU) Buses, generators, and other diesel fuel consumers
are having serious problems due to the corrupt practice of
"cutting" diesel fuel by adding water to it. Corruption has
also delivered a painful lesson to car owners here, who have

ASHGABAT 00000045 002 OF 003


painfully learned their engine coolant and brake fluid are
substandard products further diluted with water, now frozen
solid.

OLD SOVIET HEATING SYSTEMS CAN'T KEEP PACE


8. (SBU) The Soviet-era apartment buildings, where the
great majority live in Ashgabat, receive heat from
centralized systems that have been ineffective in fending off
single-digit temperatures. Local staff tell us that most of
the older apartment buildings are provided with heat by a
neighborhood heating plant that delivers hot water or steam
to dozens of buildings. The system is inefficient because
the plant creates heat that is then transported through pipes
to apartments that might be a mile away. In the current
cold, the plants have been unable to deliver sufficient heat
to apartments in their jurisdictions. In some buildings, the
heating system had not been functioning for several years.
Residents have reportedly been augmenting the centralized
system with a variety of portable electric heaters, which are
likely playing a significant role in the electricity
shortages now occurring around the city.


9. (SBU) One local resident in a 1960s-era apartment
building said residents of her building had been told that no
electricity would be available after 9 pm for the foreseeable
future, perhaps in an effort to reduce the building,s
electricity demands. Other local residents have told us that
the city has been enforcing a rolling blackout after 9 pm,
with various neighborhoods alternating being in the dark.
One family without lights TV reported spending their evenings
this week sitting around a candle. A resident of another
building said different sections of the building had
experienced power outages at different times, also suggesting
an effort to reduce the building,s overall demand, or to
reduce residents' use of portable electric heaters. A
teacher at the international school who lives in nearby
luxury apartments, however, reported that although her
building had experienced several power outages over the last
few days, it was apparently equipped with backup generators,
relatively uncommon here. She said fellow residents told her
that the building is equipped with generators because
President Berdimuhamedov,s sister lives there.

UTILITIES INFRASTRUCTURE TAKING A HIT


10. (SBU) At least one electrical transformer substation in
the city's center caught fire this week, probably from the
upsurge of electricity usage, and local residents report the
occurrence of many apartment fires due to the overburdening
of electrical wiring as well as accidents relating to the use
of dangerous natural gas-burning portable heaters. There are
also reports that city water mains and natural gas lines have
ruptured due to the extreme cold.


11. (SBU) City officials appeared to be perplexed and
unable to cope with weather-related issues around the city.
City buses--full of frozen diesel fuel--failed to appear for
passengers the morning of January 7, and someone tasked those
poor female street cleaners (known in the Embassy as "street
ninjas" because they cover their faces with scarves)
literally to sweep the snow off of main streets with their
twig brooms. This had little impact on treacherous driving
conditions, however, since the initial snowfall from January
6 melted slightly on the roadways and then froze again.
There has been no information regarding the potential human
toll here, given the loss of life that occurs when such
severe weather occurs elsewhere in the world. An Embassy
employee driving through an undeveloped area of Ashgabat late
the night of January 6 reported seeing a man near the
roadway, huddled next to a small fire. It seems likely such
extreme cold is taking a tragic toll on Ashgabat,s most poor
and destitute.

ASHGABAT 00000045 003 OF 003



YOU DO WHAT YOU NEED TO GET BY


12. (SBU) One Embassy dependent noticed a small store in the
Mir Bazaar area with its doors wide open despite the bitter
cold. When she entered the store, she saw it was being
heated by a red hot hotplate placed in the middle of the room.


13. (SBU) COMMENT: The severe cold weather is expected to
last at least another week and is certain to create more
problems for the Turkmen government. Weather problems in the
city have revealed that there are more than a few local and
national government officials who could (should?) be relieved
of duty "for shortcomings in their work." Ashgabat residents
were seasoned by life under former President Niyazov to
understand that their government does not serve its people.
They may, however, become frustrated enough with the
government's failure to cope with growing utility problems
that are affecting daily life, to finally expect something
more. END COMMENT.
HOAGLAND