QURGHON-TEPPA, Tajikistan -- More than 40,000 people in the Qurghon-Teppa district in Tajikistan's southern Khatlon Province have been without electricity or running water for three days because the electricity transfer station Lomonosov was destroyed over the weekend by strong winds, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports.
The station -- which was built some 30 years ago -- is in need of renovation.
A Lomonosov official says renovations could be financed if local consumers paid debts totaling more than 43 million somonis -- or about $11 million.
Qurghon-Teppa residents say food has spoiled in the hot weather because refrigerators are not working. They said they are also forced to go to the ground floors of their houses for water because electric pumps do not work and cannot bring the water to other parts of their homes.