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 
 
¶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