Tajikistan: Arrival and First Days

February 28, 2009 | Pulitzer Center

Carolyn Drake

In the village of Akjar, an intermittantly working Soviet-era irrigation canal is the only source of water. Image by Carolyn Drake. Tajikistan, 2009.

The lighter colored strips of shoreline highlight the low water level above Nurek dam. Image by Carolyn Drake. Tajikistan, 2009.

A view of mountains on a Tajik airways flight from Bishkek to Dushanbe. Mountains comprise 93% of the country's territory and provide the majority of water that sustain life and agriculture in Central Asia. Image by Carolyn Drake. Tajikistan, 2009.

Tajiks gather at the airport in Dushanbe to greet and honor friends and family returning on charter flights from Hajj. Image by Carolyn Drake. Tajikistan, 2009.

A man holds out a plastic flower as a gift to the photographer on International Women's day in Shurab, a coal mining town in Tajikistan's north. Image by Carolyn Drake. Tajikistan, 2009.

A crumbling Soviet building in Shurab, a coal mining town in Tajikistan's north. The earth above the mine started caving in after an earthquake in 1979, with houses and office buildings falling to the ground. Image by Carolyn Drake. Tajikistan, 2009.

Coal mine headquarters in Shurab. Image by Carolyn Drake. Tajikistan, 2009.

Two of Bibisoro Sayidova's 5 children inside their home. Their father works in Russia but the remittance money he sends has slowed in recent months due to the global economic crisis. The house has electricity for only two hours in the morning. Image by Carolyn Drake. Tajikistan, 2009.

Women use sticks to heat a stove for baking bread. Image by Carolyn Drake. Tajikistan, 2009.

A waterless fountain in front of a government building in the city of Isfara, near Tajikistan's borders with Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. The absence of water during winter months is a result of Uzbekistan cutting off electricity, which is needed to power water pumps. Image by Carolyn Drake. Tajikistan, 2009.

With the majority of men working abroad in Russia, the village of Voce in Tajikistan's southwest is full of women and children. Fifty percent of Tajikistan's male population work in Russia. Image by Carolyn Drake. Tajikistan, 2009.

An oil lamp on a pedestal near an electric switch provides light on the frequent occasion when electricity supply is shut off. Image by Carolyn Drake. Tajikistan, 2009.

Water pours down from a dilapidated Soviet structure at Nurek dam. Partly in an effort to reduce the country's need to purchase electricity from abroad, President Rakhmon is planning a new dam, which when finished will be the world's tallest. Image by Carolyn Drake. Tajikistan, 2009.

A peeling Soviet mural showing villagers adding stones to the shore of an irrigation canal to protect it. Image by Carolyn Drake. Tajikistan, 2009.

Family photos displayed atop an armoir in Voce. Fifty percent of Tajik work abroad in Russia. Flows of migrant money to developing countries began to slow last fall after years of double-digit growth, according to the World Bank. Image by Carolyn Drake. Tajikistan, 2009.

A married couple with their newborn baby takes advantage of one hour of electricity per day to listen to music on a small stereo in their home that is heated in a stove with coal from the local mine. There is no work for the husband, who is ethnically Russian, in Shurab so he lives in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan working a construction job. He returned just after the baby was born to help his Tajik wife heat the one room apartment while nursing the infant. Image by Carolyn Drake. Tajikistan, 2009.