Rural Water Supply & Sanitation Project  It’s been for about five years since Saragul’s family, living in a Karakalpak settlement of Kyzketken, has no problems with drinking water. It is a great relief for the family of six people, which for a long time had been using water brought by water carriers and keeping it in a big tank outside the house. The hostess proudly shows us a neat corner in the anteroom specially appointed for a running water faucet. A water meter, fixed above it, shows the amount of precious liquid spent, which is charged according to its statement. As for the tank, now it is used in summer time for keeping water to irrigate a garden.
 Drinking water in Karakalpakstan is really precious: it is delivered from Tuyamuyun reservoir by 240 kilometers long sluice. A family with modest income cannot afford using it for irrigation purposes. Owing to the World Bank credit allocated for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project, about seven thousand families of Kyzketken are enjoying regular water supply.
 The credit of the World Bank and other International institutions made it possible to put into operations a water distribution center with a productive capacity of 4.9 thousand cubic meters of water per day. Also, about 7 kilometers of the main water pipeline were laid; 7 km. of distributing water supply networks were built as well as 7 km. of house connections done. To implement these works the constructors used malleable cast iron pipes produced in France and having an operating life of 70 years. As for the distribution pipes, they were also made of up-to-date materials – home-produced polyethylene pipes with extended operating life.
 Iosif Yusupov, Head of the Regional Project Implementation Unit says: - As a result of the project implementation 27 thousand people got quality drinking water: daily water consumption has increased from 40-60 liters to 250 liters. Water meters have been installed in the households .
Besides Kyzketken, the large-scale “Water Supply, Sanitation and Health” program on drinking water supply improvement in the Aral Sea Area (Karakalpakstan and Khoresm region) includes additional 11 contracts with the overall value of USD103.2 million funded from the loans of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) and German Development Bank KFW, and also supplemented by the budgetary funds of the country. These contracts resulted in reconstructing and putting into operation new water intake facilities, sluices, distributing networks, and desalination units have been.  According to the Ministry of Economy, central water supply systems were reconstructed in Nukus (26.7 km) and Urgench (32.6 km). 28 rural water distribution centers have been reconstructed in Karakalpakstan and 31 in Khorezm region. Main water pipelines with water distribution centers have been set up in Beruny and Turtkul settlements. Spare parts for reconstruction of 43 desalination units have been purchased. Computers and accounting software have been installed at public water utilities.
The quality of drinking water used by over 870 thousand people, living in the area of WB project implementation, has been improved. Some 340 thousand people got access to new water sources. Water delivery to industrial and commercial enterprises has been increased. The figures seem to be dead statistics, but for people living in the area affected by Aral Sea disaster, they reflect high price paid for precious water. |
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