In April 2009, Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon proposed to the people of his country to switch from tungsten bulbs to energy-saving lamps. On April 27, the President issued a decree “On additional measures on economical use of energy and energy-saving”, calling for a compulsory switch to energy-saving lamps by October 1. To promote the idea and expedite the process, the Government of Tajikistan adopted a decree in August, banning the import of bulbs to Tajikistan starting October 1. Tajikistan annually experiences severe electricity shortages during the winter season, lacking 4-5 billion kilowatt/hour. President Rakhmon thinks the new initiative will allow the country to save up to 3.12 billion kilowatt/hour a year. At first glance, the President’s idea has many advantages. However, not all aspects of the campaign are well-considered.

Primarily, the initiative does not pay enough attention to the fact that the much advertised energy-saving lamps are six times more expensive than bulbs. In Dushanbe, one can buy a bulb for 5-25 U.S. cents, and the price for energy-saving lamps varies from US$1.5 to 10. With an average salary of US$80 per month, the new lamps may become a disaster for the budgets of many Tajik families. Perhaps aiming to address this problem, during the holy month of Ramadan President Rakhmon donated up to eight energy-saving lamps each to 360 low-income families in Dushanbe. Moreover, he appealed to the people of Tajikistan to give alms during Ramadan not in money, but in energy-saving lamps. In any case, while there are still some bulbs available in the markets, people do not seem willing to buy expensive lamps.

The financial aspect of the issue is closely related to the quality and origin of production of the newly introduced lamps. The Tajik market is currently full of lamps produced in China and Turkey. The former are cheaper and seem to burn out faster; the latter are more expensive and supposedly last longer. As was stated by the President, Tajik authorities purchased two million energy-saving lamps from China, at a total cost of over US$3.5 million. In connection to this it was stated that, in the long-term perspective, Tajikistan will open two plants producing energy-saving lamps, one of which will be assisted by Russia. Thus, it is expected that by 2011 bulbs will not be used in Tajikistan at all.

Another aspect of the issue is the efficiency of the energy-saving lamps. Viktor Lyadskiy, head of the Enterprises and Cooperatives Association of the city of Chkalovsk, estimated that on average, a house or an apartment would need 8-12 lamps. Considering the fact that Chinese lamps need to be changed three times a year, an average family would have to spend about US$ 50 a year on these lamps. Nonetheless, he estimates that using the new lamps saves up to 80 percent of the electricity used by the old ones. For instance, one tungsten bulb with the incandescence of 100 watt consumes 1 kilowatt-hour in 10 hours, and a luminescent lamp of 20 watt consumes the same amount of energy in 50 hours.

The qualitative feature of the energy-saving lamps is another issue to be discussed. Energy-saving lamps usually means luminescent or light-emitting diode lamps. The former could be of different types, color, power and amount of mercury. Since mercury is a liquid heavy metal and its evaporation may cause oncological diseases, representatives of Tajikistan’s medical institutions insist that detailed examinations of the effects and consequences of using such lamps should be conducted before allowing them to be used by the wider public.

Directly related to this issue is the utilization of such mercury-containing lamps. These lamps should not be disposed of as a common waste, but buried in the soil. Thus, if the authorities of Tajikistan plan a massive switch to new lamps, certain measures should be taken to ensure that this waste will be handled in an environmentally safe manner.

All of the abovementioned aspects of the President’s new initiative imply some major weaknesses of the idea. There are no doubts that the use of energy-saving lamps will substantially improve the situation of energy shortages in Tajikistan, especially during the winter season. However, the question remains of how reasonable and feasible common people of Tajikistan consider the plan to be.