Tajikistan appealed to its citizens yesterday to donate funds to help build a hydroelectric project that could end energy shortages in the impoverished central Asian country and provide a source of revenue from electricity exports.

Most of the population in the Muslim nation bordering Iran and Afghanistan were deprived of heat and light during a record cold winter this year, prompting the government to step up a campaign to complete the construction of a huge dam and power plant at Rogun on the River Vaksh.