Residents of remote villages in the Pamirs who have been cut off from the outer world for more than a month have cleared 12 kilometers of road of snow manually, the Tsentr-1 (Center-1) website reported on March 6.

Three villages in the Vanj district of the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) – Poi Mazor, Vanv and Sungad – have been cut off from the outer world since January 28.  Snow blankets have been as much as more than two and half meters in this region.

One tractor has been sent from the administrative center of the Vanj district to the Poi Mazor village for clearing the road of snow but it broke down on the way to the village.  As a result, residents of the Poi Mazor village (700 people live in this village) have been forced to clear 12 kilometers of road with spades.

Residents of the Poi Mazor village, Khilvatsho Mahmoudov, say they did not receive any assistance from Committee on Emergency Situations (CES) and other government agencies.

Residents of the mentioned villages reportedly were fortunate to have electricity due to the mini power plant constructed by residents of the villages under financial support of the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF).  

On January 4, residents of snow-capped villages in mountain areas received two tons of humanitarian aid delivered there by helicopters of the Russian military base deployed in Tajikistan, according to Russian media.  

This year’s snowfalls were reportedly Gorno Badakhshan’s heaviest over the past 70 years. 

According to the Committee on Emergency Situations of Tajikistan, about 600 snow-slides have occurred in the country over the past two months.  Twenty people were reportedly killed by those avalanches.  

In the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region, roads to some remote villages still remain blocked.