Source: USAID – By David Taylor
Power lines in Tajikistan were extended across the border into Afghanistan last year, transmitting reliable electricity and raising the quality of life for thousands of Afghans.
ne morning last May, 100 residents of two isolated communities in Afghanistan gathered with a handful of representatives of the governments of the United States, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, and the Aga Khan Development Network. Together they celebrated the end of a journey connecting their villages to the power grid. For the citizens of Deshor and Wiriz, it marked the start of a new era.
For the first time, the new transmission lines crossing the border from Tajikistan brought reliable electricity, with associated social and economic opportunities to these communities high in the Afghan Pamir Mountains. It changed life for over 400 Afghan households—nearly 3,000 people—and, through infrastructure upgrades, improved the availability of reliable electricity for another 20,000 people.
Pamir Energy—a partnership of the Government of Tajikistan, the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development and the International Finance Corporation—worked with USAID and the Aga Khan Foundation USA to extend transmission lines across the Panj River, which serves as much of the Afghan-Tajik border, into Afghanistan’s Shugnan district. Through the partnership, Pamir Energy upgraded facilities and trained Afghan utility workers to maintain the new lines and improve the region’s infrastructure.
Read more – Dated: March/April 2017
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