Every fourth inhabitant of Central Asia, home to more than 83 million people, does not have regular access to safe drinking water. The region spans more than four million square kilometers, and over 15% of its territory is covered by the Karakum and Kyzylkum deserts, as well as waterless places such as the Ustyurt Plateau (similar in size to the United Kingdom), which stretches across Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. The extreme heat common to Central Asia in summer makes water a precious resource.
To make matters worse, irresponsible human activity, particularly wasteful water use for irrigation, has led to one of the most devastating ecological catastrophes globally. The Aral Sea, where up to 60,000 tonnes of fish were caught annually only 30 years ago, has practically ceased to exist. Most of Central Asia’s freshwater intake relies on glacial melts affected by global warming.
The World Resources Institute forecast in its 2023 Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas that an additional one billion people globally will live with extremely high water stress by 2050. This will disrupt economies and agricultural production. Most Central Asian countries will be severely affected.
While the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) cannot reverse the global warming process or tackle its impacts alone, it can certainly contribute to climate change mitigation efforts, securing better water access, and promoting its rational use. There is frequently no water supply or water treatment infrastructure in rural areas of the regions where it invests.
Most municipal water supply and treatment utilities across Central Asia have not seen much investment or refurbishment over the last 30 years. The EBRD has been working to address this issue, and many of its investment projects are already impacting people’s lives.
Image: EBRD
In Kazakhstan, the Bank’s work with Vodnye Resoursy Marketing (VRM)/Shymkent water company, the country’s only privately owned municipal water utility, perfectly illustrates why the EBRD is such a strong advocate of private-sector involvement in the provision of municipal services. Over many years, we have enjoyed excellent cooperation with this company, which has translated into high-quality water supply services for more than 1.2 million residents of Shymkent. It has become a benchmark for the region for its effective and efficient operations.
Thanks to VRM’s efforts, with 1.2 million residents, Shymkent became the first city in Kazakhstan to install a water meter for every consumer. User habits have changed: personal daily water consumption has decreased from 456 liters 27 years ago to 150 liters. The water savings achieved during this period will enable Shymkent to meet the needs of its population for another 20 years.
The EBRD started working with VRM in 2009 and has financed five projects totaling €60 million. With the Bank’s financial assistance, VRM has introduced an automated network monitoring system, improved power supply at twelve pumping stations, constructed eleven electrical substations, and built a European Union standards-compliant biogas facility (the only one of its kind in Central Asia), which helps VRM to meet all of its thermal energy needs. Water losses from the system have declined from 42% to 17%. The EBRD’s and VRM’s joint investments have allowed the upgrade of 126 km of water supply networks and 112 km of sewer networks in Shymkent.
Image: EBRD
Building sustainable infrastructure that can provide high-quality water and wastewater services to businesses and households in Central Asia is not easy. The institutional capacity of state-owned utilities in countries such as the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan is often very low. This slows project implementation, making them more expensive and frustrating for stakeholders.
Luckily, the EBRD has a solution. Thanks to its cooperation with donors (the EU, Switzerland, Japan, and the Global Environment Facility, to name but a few), the EBRD can offer longer loan maturities, mobilize grants to cover project-associated costs, and spend time on policy dialogue with relevant ministries, agencies, and state-owned companies. The EBRD is helping to strengthen the Kyrgyz Republic’s and Tajikistan’s resilience to climate change and reduce energy and water consumption by rehabilitating water networks and building pump stations, clean water reservoirs, and water intake and treatment facilities.
More than 1.7 million people in 21 municipalities across Tajikistan enjoy better access to clean and safe drinking water after completing eight water infrastructure rehabilitation projects (in various parts of the country, from Khujand to Khorog). Over the last 18 years, the EBRD has mobilized $102 million (€99 million), including its loans, donor grants, and technical cooperation funds. These funds have facilitated the replacement of over 700,000 meters of water network pipes, constructing or rehabilitating 44 water intakes, the installation of 25,000 water meters, and the procurement of more than 150 specialized vehicles and other equipment.
In the Kyrgyz Republic, the Bank has invested more than $196 million (€190 million) in 31 water projects in 26 cities, many of them under the Kyrgyz Water Sector Resilience Framework. Sub-loans to small municipalities in the mountains of Tian Shan and in the Ferghana Valley, where socioeconomic issues surrounding shared water resources are most pressing, may be not large but are very important. They address critical drinking water and wastewater infrastructural issues and promote sustainable water use by minimizing water losses and encouraging water conservation.
In 2024, the EBRD Board approved a €100 million Regional Integrated Water Resources Management Framework for the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan. It will help to identify and implement more water-related projects in the coming years.
In the region’s two largest economies, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the Bank has financed water and wastewater projects amounting to €255.8 million and €407 million, respectively. These include a sovereign loan of €96.4 million for constructing a new wastewater treatment plant in Aktobe, Kazakhstan (the EBRD’s largest municipal project in Central Asia). The funds will also finance the construction of a sludge treatment facility with a biogas-fuelled power generation unit.
It is also worth noting that the Bank is working to improve the efficiency of regional irrigation water conveyancing systems in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and the Kyrgyz Republic. All the countries depend on irrigated agriculture and are known for relatively low levels of rainfall throughout the year. Replacing old water pumps and pipes with modern equipment will ensure better control over the flow of water and reduce losses.
