Water Access - The Times Of Central Asia

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EBRD Supports Water Infrastructure Upgrades in Northern Kyrgyzstan

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has announced a financial package of up to €17 million to upgrade water infrastructure in three cities in northern Kyrgyzstan. The funding includes a loan of up to €7.6 million and a matching grant. The funds will be used to modernize water supply networks, upgrade pumping stations, install water meters in Kemin and Shopokov, and restore wastewater treatment and sewerage systems in Talas. In addition to the financial package, the projects will receive a technical cooperation grant of up to €1.8 million. This grant will support the implementation process and the corporate development of municipal utilities in the three cities. Hüseyin Özhan, EBRD Managing Director for Central Asia, highlighted the Bank's role as a key lender to Kyrgyzstan’s water sector. “We have supported 31 water projects for the amount of more than €190 million in 26 cities across the Kyrgyz Republic to date. They are helping households and businesses to have regular access to high-quality water and wastewater services,” Özhan stated. Since beginning its operations in Kyrgyzstan in 1992, the EBRD has invested approximately €998 million across 250 projects. These initiatives primarily focus on sustainable infrastructure and private sector development, significantly improving living conditions and economic opportunities in the region.

Climate Change Environment Water Shortages Water Access water saving Glaciers

Uzbekistan’s Largest Glacier Melts by 20 Meters in 12 Months, Expedition Finds

BBC Uzbekistan has reported, quoting the country’s Hydrometeorology Research Institute, that at the beginning of August an expedition of Uzbek and German scientists trekked to the Pakhtakor glacier, situated in the eastern part of Uzbekistan. The study of the Pakhtakor glacier, which is extremely difficult to reach and located in the Bostonliq district of the Tashkent region, near the borders with Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, started in July of last year. The latest expedition found that Uzbekistan's largest glacier tongue (an extension of a glacier or ice stream projecting seaward) had retreated by 20 meters in the last year. The surface of the ablation part (the initial part of the glacier where the ice melts faster) has melted by 3 meters. Pakhtakor is one of the largest glaciers feeding the Pskom River. There are about 140 large and small glaciers in the Pskom River basin, which has a total area of 128 square kilometers. According to the BBC report, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, studies of permafrost were rarely conducted in other Central Asian countries except Kazakhstan. Although there are few glaciers in Uzbekistan, they play an essential role in the ecosystem. In low-water years, glaciers provide up to 25% of the total flow. Maksim Petrov, the head of the Center for Glacial Geology at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of Uzbekistan, says the country's glaciers are melting at different rates. “The melting rate is almost in line with the average rate in Central Asia. However, the melting rate in our mountains in the eastern part is not high, and the glaciers have melted only up to 20%. The glaciers in Surkhandarya have melted by 40%. The most catastrophic situation is in Kashkadarya — up to 70%,” Petrov said at a roundtable discussion held by Cabar Asia in May. Petrov added: “Large glaciers are breaking up and breaking into pieces. It seems the number of glaciers is increasing, but their area is shrinking.” Various scientists point out that the shrinking area of glaciers has yet to seriously affect the water balance in Central Asia, and the observed water shortage is mainly caused by population and industrial growth. But in 2015, German researchers warned that glaciers in the Tian Shan mountains, which play an essential role in maintaining the water cycle in the region, are rapidly melting. Half of the total ice mass is forecast to melt by 2050. “Today, Tian Shan is losing an amount of ice equivalent to twice the annual water consumption of all of Germany,” the 2015 study stated.

Economy water saving Water Management Water Access Environment Water Climate Change Agriculture

Kazakhstan’s Kapchagay Reservoir Fills Up For First Time In A Decade

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation announced on August 26 that the Kapchagay reservoir outside Almaty was completely full for the first time in ten years. Created in 1970 as an artificial lake, 100km long and up to 25km wide in places, the reservoir can hold more than 18 billion cubic meters of water. The reservoir collects water from the Ili River, which originates in China. This spring, the ministry said up to 900 cubic meters of water per second flowed into the reservoir, attributing the increased inflow to the melting of the Tien Shan mountain glaciers and higher than usual rainfall. The reservoir was initially meant to regulate the flow of the Ili River on its way to Kazakhstan’s largest lake, Balkhash. Today, it is used for irrigation, fish farming, and recreation. Located a one-hour drive from Almaty, its beaches are popular with holidaymakers. According to Medet Kerimzhanov, deputy head of the Balkhash-Alakol basin inspectorate, the last time the Kapchagay reservoir was 100% full was in 2014. Today, 750 cubic meters of water per second are released from the reservoir to irrigate fields. Kerimzhanov added that the irrigation season in the region will continue until the end of September. Earlier this month, the Ministry of Water Resources said it was drafting an intergovernmental agreement between Kazakhstan and China on distributing water from transboundary rivers — the Ertis, the Ili, and the Emel. To date, the parties have reached a consensus on several provisions of the future agreement, the ministry said.

transboundary water Lake Balkhash Water Security water saving Balkhash Water Access Environment China

Kazakhstan and China in Talks on Feeding Lake Balkhash

The Kazakh Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation announced on August 19 that Kazakhstan and China are drafting an agreement on dividing trans-boundary river waters between the two countries. The main objective of the agreement is to ensure that the water in Kazakhstan’s Lake Balkhash remains at an optimal level. Located 280km northwest of the country’s largest city, Almaty, Lake Balkhash is the fifteenth largest lake in the world. It is fed by several trans-boundary rivers flowing from China, the largest of which is the Ili River, which provides about 80% of the lake's water. [caption id="attachment_21931" align="aligncenter" width="1056"] Image: Wikimapia[/caption] Environmentalists in Kazakhstan have been concerned about Lake Balkhash's shallowing. Balkhash has been gradually drying up in recent years, including due to the decline in water volumes in the Ili River. Upstream China has extensively diverted the river over the past half century to produce hydroelectric power and agricultural crops on irrigated land. According to research, as of 2021 China was blocking 40% of the river’s inflow. Moldir Abdualieva, a spokesperson of the Kazakh Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, said that the ministry has been paying great attention to providing Lake Balkhash with the necessary volume of water. “Since the beginning of this year, more than 12 billion cubic meters of water have been sent to the lake," she said. In May, it was reported that the water level in Balkhash had risen by 23cm since the beginning of the year due to increased rainfall and floods caused by snow melt this past spring.

Access to Clean Water Water Access Social

By 2025, All of Kazakhstan Will Have Access to Clean Drinking Water

The Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, Olzhas Bektenov, has said at a government meeting where issues of water supply services to urban and rural settlements were addressed that the entire population will have access to clean drinking water within eighteen months. At the end of last year, access to water supply services in Kazakhstan's cities amounted to 98.9%, and in rural settlements, 96.6%. Full coverage of the urban population has been achieved in nine regions, with the lowest level of provision noted in the Abai and Pavlodar regions. To improve the situation in the regions with low indicators, funds are being allocated on a priority basis. Twenty-nine projects to construct and reconstruct pipelines in nine oblasts are being implemented, with plans to reconstruct and develop 2,000 kilometers of water pipelines, providing water supply to 437 settlements. A connection to a centralized water supply will be made in 44 of these, with a total population of 92,000 people. Five projects are under development and will be implemented after receiving state expertise; their implementation will improve the water supply in 200 settlements. In 2024, 218 billion tenge was bookmarked from the republican budget to fund the construction and reconstruction of water supply and sewage systems. The Prime Minister emphasized that by the end of 2025, 100% of the population must have access to quality drinking water. "This is one of the most socially important tasks. Only one-and-a-half-years are left for its fulfillment. Despite the high percentage of fulfillment, akimats (local authorities) should intensify work to achieve the plans to bring the relevant infrastructure to villages and towns. All works on the water supply should be prioritized. The implementation of water supply networks within settlements should be synchronized with the plans to bring the infrastructure of group water conduits to the borders of villages", said Bektenov.

Sustainable Development Water Access

Dushanbe: Water for Sustainable Development

Tajikistan is collaborating with the United Nations to host an international meeting next month about water, an increasingly scarce resource in Central Asia. The June 10-13 conference will promote the role of water in sustainable development, building on two similar gatherings in Dushanbe in 2018 and 2022. It follows a climate change conference currently underway in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Delegates to the Tajikistan meeting will talk about safe drinking water and sanitation, cross-border cooperation on water resources and the impact of climate change. Academic researchers, government officials, representatives of financial institutions and civil society members are expected to attend.