BALKAN PROVINCE, Turkmenistan -- Denizens of the coastal city of Turkmenbashi have only 40 minutes a day to fill their buckets and tanks with water amid a crippling rationing severely restricting the drinking water in the middle of Turkmenistan's scorching summer.
Water is provided to residents twice a day for 20 minutes -- at 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. -- with the taps dry the rest of the day, people say.
"First it was 30 minutes in the morning and 40 minutes in the evening, so the problem has gotten [significantly] worse," said a Turkmenbashi resident who didn't want to give his name for fear of retaliation in the authoritarian country.
The water crisis has affected hotels and businesses in the city's resort district of Awaza at the peak of the summer holiday season, although the situation is slightly better in that area as it gets water supplies three times a day.
It's unclear if places like hospitals or nurseries are exempt from the rationing. Authorities did not respond to RFE/RL requests for comment.
Water shortages are being reported in many parts of Turkmenistan, hitting the Central Asian country amid searing summer heat where temperatures hover around 35-40 degrees Celsius.
In Turkmenabat and the surrounding areas in the eastern Lebap region, residents report there have been frequent outages of drinking water since mid-June. The blackouts come without any prior notice and can last for several days, locals say.
One outage in Turkmenabat and the suburban Charjew district lasted July 8-12, they said.
"It was a big problem," one resident said. "There was no water in the taps for days."
A man from Charjew's Darghanly village told RFE/RL that the price of bottled water went up overnight as a result. Others said people were going to neighboring districts in search of water.
Antiquated Infrastructure
Residents blame the crisis on aging water pipes and authorities' inability to fix the problem.
Turkmen cities rely on the decrepit centralized network to distribute drinking water. In most cities the pipes have not been replaced since Soviet times, leaving residents with chronic water shortages.
In a country where corruption is widespread, many people suspect that money allocated for the overhaul of the infrastructure has been embezzled.
"We're tired of asking the city authorities to resolve this problem once and for all. But we know that our complaints don't bring any results," said a resident of Turkmenabat's Uchpunkt neighborhood. "The city administration always tells us that the problem will soon be taken care of, but people don't believe it anymore."
In some Turkmenabat neighborhoods, residents have decided to take the initiative into their own hands, collecting money to replace broken and corroded pipes.
"People are collecting $30 per household," said a resident of the neighborhood known as Mikrorayon N3.
Dirty Water
In addition to the water shortages, there have been reports in some cities of the poor quality of water coming from the taps.
"The tap water in new Turkmenbashi apartment buildings and in the Awaza hotels has a yellowish color and smells like metal," a local resident said on July 18.
"People wait for hours for the dirt in the water to sink to the bottom before using it for tea or food," another resident said, adding that "not everyone in our city can afford filtered water for $4 for a 5-liter bottle."
A similar problem in May in the capital, Ashgabat, was blamed by city officials on floodwater temporarily affecting the quality of the water. Several people were hospitalized with suspected contamination from the water, but the secretive authorities didn't acknowledge there had been a health crisis.
In the town of Annau in Akhal Province, people complain about what they describe as "high levels of salt" in the water.
"It tastes salty," an Annau resident told RFE/RL. "When you wash your clothes in this water, white stains appear on the clothes after drying."
It's unknown if authorities have launched a probe to determine if the water is safe to drink.
There is no transparency or accountability for authorities in Turkmenistan, who don't acknowledge the problems regarding their handling of the important issues that citizens face.
