The measures to ensure 100% coverage of urban and rural settlements with water supply were considered at the Government session chaired by Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov, El.kz cites primeminister.kz.
Minister of Industry and Infrastructural Development Marat Karabayev reported that by the end of 2022, the availability of water supply in the republic reached: in the cities 98.4%, in the villages 94.5%. The lowest level of coverage with drinking water in the cities is in Zhambyl region at 91.9%, in villages in Kostanai region at 80.4%, in Akmola region at 89.8%, and in North Kazakhstan region at 85%. In this case, the regions with low indicators of security are allocated funds on a priority basis.
This year, 280 billion tenge is allocated from the national budget for the construction and reconstruction of water and wastewater systems. These funds will be used to implement 402 projects, including 135 projects worth 167 billion tenge in cities and 267 projects worth 113 billion tenge in villages. By the end of the year, the level of accessibility of the water supply should reach: in cities up to 98.8%, in rural areas 96.3%. In general, by 2025 the relevant services will cover residents of the remaining 25 urban settlements and 1,395 villages.
As Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Zulfiya Suleimenova noted, currently there are 80 group water pipelines in the republic with length of 15.5 thousand kilometers. They provide 655 rural settlements with drinking water, covering 1.4 million people.
This year, it is planned to put into operation the Eskuli water pipeline, construction of which began in 2010. Funds are also allocated for implementation of 27 projects for construction and reconstruction of group water pipelines in Akmola, Almaty, Atyrau, Ulytau, Kyzylorda, Mangystau, Turkestan and North Kazakhstan regions. The issue of allocation of funds to continue reconstruction of Uytas-Aidos group water pipeline is under consideration.
Akims of Akmola region Yermek Marzhikpaev, Kostanay region Kumar Aksakalov told about the work being done in the regions.
Prime Minister reminded that the Government has set a task to provide 100% of population with clean drinking water by the end of 2025. In this regard, one of the most important areas is to address the issue of water scarcity across the country.
"Today we need to solve the problem of providing more than 600 thousand of our citizens with drinking water. Even in the capital there are water shortages. In this context water conservation should play a special role. Unfortunately, many citizens do not want to save water. Digitalization of the industry and effective tariff setting should serve the solution of this problem," Alikhan Smailov said.
He added that all these aspects should be included in the preparation of the new Water Code and policy documents.
At the same time, there are a number of systematic problems, which have not yet found their solutions. Thus, in a number of regions, work on the construction of water treatment facilities is delayed. For example, in Akmola oblast, this work has dragged on for 10 years. In addition, prospecting and exploration work has not started in a timely manner everywhere, and in the Karaganda Region the bidding procedures are only being conducted.
"There are still unresolved issues of completion of long-built drinking water supply projects. Bright examples are the Yeskulinsky water pipeline in Ulytau region, the Talap water pipeline in Kyzylorda region, the Presnovsky water pipeline and the second stage of the Sokolovsky water pipeline in North Kazakhstan region. Because of their incompleteness about 220 thousand people are not provided with centralized water supply," Prime Minister pointed out.
According to him, many cases of water outages arise due to the deterioration of infrastructure and its untimely modernization.
"In April, due to a break in the main pipe, the whole city of Balkhash was left without drinking water for several days. The fall of a water tower left the village of Andronovka in Abay region without water supply. The break in Semey left more than 70 houses without water. Also due to the accident on the main pipeline 11 settlements of Akmola region were left without water supply. And this is just some of the data for one month," Alikhan Smailov said.
The Head of Government stressed that the solution of all these problems should be approached comprehensively and ensure the achievement of the planned indicators of access to the centralized water supply in towns and villages by the end of the year.
In conclusion, Alihan Smailov ordered to monitor the whole water supply infrastructure in the republic and within a month to submit a list of facilities with high risk of breakdown, to ensure the completion of all long-buildings on the drinking water supply by the end of this year, and within a month to make proposals for the introduction of a new tariff policy for water.
"At the same time, it is important to take into account the need to channel the proceeds to modernize the infrastructure, including the introduction of digital water use technologies," he concluded.