14 August 2006
United States Helping Kazakhstan Get Safe Drinking Water
International partnership helps local people in creating sustainable water supplies
The following article by Judith E. Ayres, assistant administrator of international affairs at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, was published in the Washington File August 14. There are no republication restrictions.
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Safe Drinking Water: U.S. Helps People Turn on the Tap
By Judith E. Ayres
Assistant Administrator of International Affairs
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
More than 1 billion people worldwide still lack access to safe-drinking water, and over 3 billion people each year suffer from water-related diseases. In response, the United States is trying a radically different approach in its work with individual countries and groups to provide clean drinking water for all people. In 2006, an EPA-led Clean Water Financing Program reached the 10,000 person milestone in bringing safe drinking water to people in the Almaty region of Kazakhstan, using a novel method that promotes village ownership and participation in clean water resources. The United States hopes the Kazakhstan project will serve as a model for sustainable water development projects in other countries.
In order to make the effort sustainable over the long term, the project ensured that local villages took control, both by investing in a revolving water fund and being trained to maintain and manage the water purification systems for the future. The chairman of the Kazakhstan national water committee recently announced on national television that Kazakhstan will adopt this method and apply it throughout the country.
Clean water is fundamental to the health and well being of the people of Kazakhstan. By working to promote local control, user financing and decision-making, EPA and its partners are helping to ensure that communities will have a sustainable source of clean drinking water far into the future.
To date the project has provided approximately 10,000 people in eight villages with access to safe drinking water. By the end of 2007, 12 villages in the Almaty region, with a total of 15,000-20,000 people, should have clean water. Health benefits of the project are estimated to be a 50-60 percent decrease in water-borne diseases.
A critical component of this program is advancing self-governance while promoting a sense of ownership of public assets within target communities. An elected Village Water Committee is responsible for all system operation and maintenance. The villagers also agree to pay user fees to cover all of the system’s operating and 10 percent of the construction cost. The individual villages’ water systems then join to create a Regional Finance Cooperative to provide funding for major repairs, parts, capital improvements and expansion, and to manage a Circuit Rider Program.
Co-sponsored by the Global Environment and Technology Foundation's (GETF) International Center for Environmental Finance (ICEF), the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Phillip Morris Corporation, and others, the initiative seeks to reverse declining access to safe drinking water in rural Kazakhstan. Most drinking water systems in Kazakhstan built during the Soviet period have not been maintained and are unusable.
Kazakhstan has made significant progress toward developing a market economy, for which it was recognized by the United States in 2002. The country has enjoyed significant economic growth since 2000, partly due to its large oil, gas, and mineral reserves. A recent visit by Vice President Cheney highlighted the strategic partnership between the United States and Kazakhstan.
For the next two to three years, EPA and its partners will work with the Kazakh government to develop 500 new village water systems scheduled to be built with Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan funds in the North Kazakhstan, West Kazakhstan, and Akmola oblasts.
(Additional information is available on the Global Environment and Technology Foundation and the International Center for Environmental Finance Web sites.)
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(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
