Dushanbe: Tajikistan has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for illegal use of electricity, as a result of a decades-long energy crisis due to water shortages in poor Central Asian countries.

Tajikistan’s electricity consumption is limited to about six months a year because its outdated energy infrastructure is difficult to keep up with demand growth.

The country’s Ministry of Energy and Water Resources announced on Saturday the measures “criminal liability for violations of electricity regulations”.

To show how the country controls the press and information flow, only independent media reported on Monday.

Under the new rules, anyone trying to disconnect or bypass the meter will face up to 10 years in prison.

Former Scottish Tajikistan is ruled by President Emomali Rakhmon, a former state farm owner who has held power since 1992.

Attorney General Rustam Shoemurod said in early April that those who change meter readings or bypass them to avoid payments “seriously harm the country’s economic interests.”

The shortage of water needed for hydropower plants that produces about 95% of the electricity output for Tajikistan has resulted in years of conventional power outages.

Rakhmon said in March that he was concerned about irrational use of electricity in Central Asian countries, where the average salary was less than $240.

He is pushing the huge Rogun hydropower plant as a solution to the power crisis.

The Soviet attacks in the 1970s were first envisioned in the 1970s due to the Soviet Union’s bankruptcy and the Tajik civil war in the 1990s.

Rakhmon’s plan was resurrected in the 2000s, plagued by intense costs – estimated to be over $6 billion.