DUSHANBE: Muslim clerics in Tajikistan have advised workers building what will become the world’s tallest hydroelectric dam not to observe Ramazan, echoing comments from the country’s secular authoritarian ruler.

A spokesman for the religious affairs committee told AFP by telephone on Tuesday that the fatwa (directive) “was issued primarily for the safety of workers engaged in construction” of the Rogun dam. “They work at a great altitude in difficult conditions, as well as underground,” said the spokesman.

The Rogun dam is a signature project of President Emomali Rakhmon and its Italian contractor is in a race against time to get the first unit online by November.

Rogun, which at 335 metres will become the world’s tallest dam, is a $4 billion project that Rakhmon views as vital to lifting Tajikistan out of poverty.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2018