OSCE, international organizations help provide potable water to people in south-west Kyrgyzstan
Thirty-five volunteers from Kaptarkhana village in Batken province in south-west Kyrgyzstan, including staff of the Mayor’s office and the State Water Agency, and representatives of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek, UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) got together on 5 October 2013 to work on the facilities for taking the water from the river and channelling it to the newly constructed potable water pipeline.
The 10,730 meter-long pipeline that will provide 1,640 houses in several villages with potable water was constructed as part of the joint project of the OSCE, UN WFP and the GIZ aimed at supporting communities of Tailan, Pulon, Uzun-Saiand and Kaptarkhana villages, as well as the self-government of the town of Isfana in their efforts to reduce tensions and the risk of conflicts between local citizens.
Yulia Minaeva, Head of Economic and Ecological Dimension section of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek said: “Limited access to and scarcity of drinking water in the southern parts of Kyrgyzstan can provoke conflicts among local citizens. This project aims at ensuring provision of potable water to people, as well as its rational distribution that will help to increase efficiency of farms and increase food safety.”
Future stages of the project foresee construction of a water reservoir sufficient to provide drinking water to some 9,000 people.