Copyright: WFP

Overview
Tajikistan is a landlocked, mountainous country and the poorest in Central Asia, with 53% of the population living below the poverty line. Natural disasters such as floods, landslides, mudflows, earthquakes and avalanches occur annually. WFP Logistics currently supports both relief and development progams throughout the country.

Team
The WFP logistics team is headed by an international Logistics Officer and is comprised of 4 staff members including Sr. Logistics Assistants and Logistics Assistants.

Activities

Ports Operations
WFP Tajikistan receives food commodities either through the port of Riga or on a DDU basis from suppliers in the region. In the latter case, food commodities are delivered to the railway stations closest to the WFP warehouses.

Storage
WFP has warehouses in the North in Khujand with the capacity 4,300MT, in Dushanbe with the capacity 6,000MT and in the South in Sarband with the capacity 8,000MT.

Road Transport
The Soviet Union system has left a fairly good road system of paved roads that connects all regions of the country. Harsh winters often disconnect northern part (Sughd) due to the closure of the mountain pass and the alternative road through Uzbekistan lowlands is in use at those times. Similarly, road from Osh in Kyrgyzstan to Khorog (GBAO) gets closed for days at a time due to high mountain pass at 4,700 meters. Secondary roads are generally passable and are used by WFP for distribution at all times.

Delays are frequent for a few days at a time in winter, due to the snow. Road from Dushanbe, via Kulyab, Darvaz to Khorog in Badakhshan is improving, as the Government is rehabilitating the road along Tajik/Afghan border. Frequent rock falls and land slides can close this passage too, especially during winter and rainy seasons. Low level of import/export by road guarantees almost immediate border crossing. Adequate fuel availability in case of emergency situation may be a problem.

Road transport entry points are at the same locations as the rail ones. the entry point parallel to Dushanbe is recommended as the main customs point with all facilities.

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Rail
WFP uses rail transport to bring cargo via Baltic ports of Riga and Ventspils. Alternate corridors are via Black Sea (Poti port, by rail Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Tajikistan) and recently opened Iran corridor via Port Bandarabas (by rail to Turkmenabad). Rail enters Tajikistan in Aivaj in the south, near Dushanbe in the middle of the country and in Khujand in the northern part.

The rail network was well established during Soviet times and connected all Soviet Republics. Tajikistan was a part of this system and is able to move/ receive any cargo to/ from any of these countries relatively easily. There is passenger rail traffic moving mostly to Russia three times a week.

Other WFP Logistics Services
The logistics cluster is activated in Tajikistan, however its level of activities is fairly modest at the present time. One of the key outputs from the logistics cluster is the interagency logistics capacity assessment which can be accessed through UNTJ website.

If and when required the country office provides logistics support to the colleagues in WFP Afghanistan by organizing transit of food commodities through Tajikistan.

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