DUSHANBE (UCAN) -- As night falls on the airport district of Dushanbe, and buildings slip into darkness, only the light from the windows of Saint Joseph Church beckons.

Power cuts plague Tajikistan in the midst of winter, sometimes leaving parts of the country without electricity for 20 out of 24 hours. But the church that ministers to the small Catholic community in the capital has a little secret, a reserve power line.

"We seldom have problems with electricity," Parish priest Father Ezequiel Ayala told UCA News. When the power goes out, the church can usually switch to the other power line that comes in from another district.

"It helps us to light the church during the Masses, to heat rooms and to run programs for children," he said, estimating the church has electricity about 70 percent of the time thanks to the extra line.

"Otherwise we would have to stop activities with children because they can't play in cold and dark rooms."

Electricity is the main source of heating for houses in this Muslim-majority country that gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. And heat is a precious commodity as Tajikistan, blanketed in snow, faces its bitterest winter in 25 years.

Makhmad Safarov, head of the State Hydrometeorology Agency, told journalists recently that temperatures dropped to minus-25 degrees Celsius this January. The last time this happened was in 1982.

The Catholic church offers a refuge from the cold and darkness, but neighbors are not so lucky.

Bakhodur Zainalov had not had electricity for two days when UCA News talked with him. "It's just a disgrace! They switch off the electricity during such strong frosts, exactly when people need it most," he said on Jan. 20.

A radiator heating system exists in many districts of Dushanbe as a legacy of the Soviet era, but it is old and does not work. Therefore people typically use electric heaters to heat their homes.

Without electricity, however, a thin layer of ice covered the windows and doors of Zainalov's apartment. "We dropped our small children at my mother-in-law's house, which is in the other part of the city, as it is impossible for them to stay in this cold apartment in such a crazy winter," he said.

His neighbor Makhadamin Karimov agrees. "Every year, officials promise us everything will be okay during the winter, but we have problems with electricity again and again," he said. "The electric systems are too old and have not been repaired since Soviet times, and our electric company has to replace it to give people a chance to live normally and survive in these terrible frosts."

The long power outages and cold have already caused tragedy. According to the weekly newspaper Argumenti i Fakti (arguments and facts), at least three babies have died in Dushanbe maternity homes. Prematurely born infants needing hospital incubators are unable to survive long power cuts.

Officials say there is not enough water in the Nureck reservoir, preventing the hydropower station from working at full capacity. Due to this, power supply is limited and rationed in the city and suburbs.

Sergei Ulubiev, 24, lives in the western district of Dushanbe. His house has electricity only six hours a day. "They give electricity only three hours in the morning and three hours in the evening," he said. "I have to heat my home by gas, which has to be used for cooking meals and is quite expensive for me."

Businesses and industry have been affected as well. Bread, a staple of the Tajik diet, is in short supply in the capital, because the many small bakeries cannot work properly without electricity.

Stanislaw Voitov, owner of a small pub, cannot operate without electricity. "My pub is located in the basement of an office block and doesn't have windows. I can't receive my customers in darkness," he explained to UCA News.

The people complain, but some also realize it could be worse.

"We have to thank God we have electricity even six hours a day," Ulubiev said. "People in the countryside have electricity only one or two hours a day, or don't have it at all."

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