Kyrgyzstan Rich with Water None to Drink

2014-2024 Drinking Water Plan Goes to Parliament, Despite its 6,500 Glaciers and 2,000 Lakes, Citizens are Thirsty

On paper, alpine Kyrgyzstan should be a pristine water paradise compared to its sun baked former Soviet Central Asian neighbors to the west. An inventory of the country's aquatic reserves bear this out - Kyrgyzstan's 6,500 glaciers alone are estimated to hold about 155 cubic miles of water. Kyrgyzstan also has a total of about 2,000 lakes with a total surface area of 2,700 square miles. Yet for many citizens, getting access to clean potable water remains a challenge despite this bounty.

Since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Germany and other Western donors like Switzerland and the Netherlands have poured millions into trying to solve Central Asia's chronic water problems.

But the grim reality for many Kyrgyz seeking access to potable water is very different. Last month in the capital Bishkek the government presented its "Program on Development of Drinking Water Supply and Waste Water Disposal in Human Settlements of the Kyrgyz Republic for 2014-2024." The government developed the program, which now will go before Parliament for approval. Surprisingly, the program is the first governmental document issue covering providing the population with clean water since Kyrgyzstan gained independence in the wake of the collapse of the USSR in 1991.

The report makes for dispiriting reading, 23 years after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Not surprisingly, water access and sanitation issues are most pronounced in the countryside, where the breakup of the large collective farms and state farms left little money for the maintenance, much less upgrade, of the rural water supply systems, leading to a serious deterioration in their technical condition, while in many of Kyrgyzstan's 1,805 villages, water pipes in general have ceased to work.

The document notes that 47.5 percent of Kyrgyzstan's population uses water from standpipes located at a distance 800 feet or less from households, with the remaining 52.5 percent drawing water from sources more than 800 feet from the dwellings. In the countryside, 60 percent of the rural population receives water from water supply systems, of which 38.3 percent comes from street standpipes, 21.6 percent from joint dwelling water systems, while the remaining 40 percent derive their drinking water from ditches, rivers, canals, springs and, for the affluent fortunate few, imported bottled water.

As for availability, 27 percent of the rural population receives water around the clock, 37 percent have access to drinking water for 12 or more hours per day, and 36 percent - less than 12 hours a day, often every day. Further worsening the situation is the fact that most Soviet-era water chlorination disinfection treatment facilities no longer work, with a resultant rise in microbiological contamination.

Sewage systems are in an even more parlous state - in rural areas, only 21 percent of the population is provided with a central sewer system and even in the capital Bishkek, the figure is 78 percent. In common with rural water issues, the problems are aggravated by a lack of funding for maintenance, much less upgrades.

The State program also touched upon sanitation. In particular, it is said that every year the fight against diseases transmitted through drinking water, costs the country more than $87 million annually, while each year acute waterborne illness infections accounts for 24 percent of all gastrointestinal cases.

Among the disease symptoms directly associated with water quality and a lack of access to safe drinking water are the recurrent typhoid outbreaks of the last several years in the Maili-Suu and Nooken districts of the Jalal-Abad region. According to the Ministry of Health, in some rural areas 61-79 percent of children cases of enterobiasis, ascariasis, giardiasis and hymenolepiasis parasitic infection are caused by a lack of access to safe potable water.

With the report the Kyrgyz government is at last acknowledging the magnitude of the problem. On September 8 during a session of the parliamentary committee on agrarian policy, water resources, environment and regional development Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Department director Askarbek Toktoshev said that the issue of supplying drinking water to 396 villages had never previously been considered, adding, "Furthermore, water supply pipes in 725 villages were built in the 1960s… Construction of new systems and rehabilitation of the old ones in these 1,121 villages requires some $560.2 million."

It is a significant issue, as in 2013 the U.S. government reported that 33.7 percent of Kyrgyzstan's population lives below the poverty line on $2 or less per day. Rural access to clean water will not be inexpensive to remedy, as the government estimates that more than $375 million is needed to improve the rural population's access to water.

Compounding the problem is the country's profligate wastage. Central Asian countries are the world "leaders" in inefficient water use, among the highest per capita users of water in the world. According to a recent report in the science journal Nature, Kyrgyzstan consumes about 70, 630 cubic feet of water annually per person, making it the fifth highest consumer rate in the world, almost twice the rate of the U.S. and more than six times as much as the average Chinese. Furthermore, Kyrgyzstan occupies the world's second place, exceeded only by neighboring Tajikistan, using almost 123 cubic feet of water to generate a dollar of GDP, followed by Uzbekistan (fourth place) and Turkmenistan (sixth place.)

Adding to this perfect aquatic storm is the low rate charged for drinking water. A month ago, during a seminar in Naryn, Water Supply and Treatment Department Director Askar Toktosh said that Kyrgyzstan has world's lowest drinking water tariffs, at 1- 3¢ per cubic foot of drinking water. Toktosh said, "We asked the population's opinion about drinking water tariffs and they said that the populace should set water tariffs. This is wrong. The tariffs should be set by rural municipalities in consultation with respective agencies, while village councils should approve them. Water meters should be installed to justify costs."

Prodding the government to reform this sector are undoubtedly memories of earlier political unrest over water and energy issues. In Oct. 2009 President Kurmanbek Bakiyev appointed his son Maxim appointed head of the Kyrgyz Republic's Agency for Investment and Economic Development, who then, quickly moved to extend his control over vast sectors of the Kyrgyz economy, as he promoted the selloff of joint stock energy and utility companies to cronies as part of the country's 2008-2012 privatization program.

After the insider trading of state energy assets at bargain prices, the government decided to raise utility rates for electricity, gas, heat and water for consumers, arguing that the money was needed for infrastructure upgrades. On January 1, 2010, electricity rates were increased. Before tariffs were raised a kilowatt of electricity cost 1.5¢. The rate subsequently rose to 3.3¢, an increase of 214 percent. Hot water rates, which were calculated according to the size of a domicile, also more than doubled, in a country where monthly pensions were roughly $15. Adding insult to injury, on Feb. 4 a meeting of the Jogorku Kenesh (Parliament) Budget and Finance Committee approved legislation to add VAT and sales tax to electricity and heating bills. Water issues underlay the price increases, as Kyrgyzstan's 15 hydroelectric stations generate 92.5 percent of domestically consumed electricity.

Source: SilkRoadReporters

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• Water Management
• Drinking Water
• Governance & Planning