Improving drinking water supply issues considered

On September 22, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev chaired a meeting on providing the population with quality drinking water.

In Uzbekistan, including in the regions, many social programs are being implemented to improve the population’s health and quality of life. In particular, over the past six years, 14 trillion 500 billion UZS have been allocated from the state budget for the drinking water supply sector, which is 6 times more than before. 31 thousand kilometers of drinking water and sewerage networks were laid, and 1.2 thousand water supply structures were built and repaired. As a result, clean drinking water for the first time came to the homes of 6.5 million people in a thousand mahallas.

At the same time, improving the drinking water supply in 30 districts and 1.4 thousand mahallas is necessary. For them, it is essential to find clean water sources.

In many cases, water is used wastefully and is not accounted for. Some pumps and special equipment of enterprises in the sector need updating.

These and other problems were discussed at the meeting. Necessary measures were defined.

The Uzsuvtaminot JSC has been tasked with building and repairing 12 thousand kilometers of networks and 1.3 thousand water supply facilities by the end of this year. Thanks to this, 1 million 100 thousand residents in 145 mahallas will have centralized access to drinking water for the first time, and water supply will improve in 2 thousand mahallas.

Regional hokims have been instructed, together with people’s deputies, to develop and submit a water supply program to the government for the next year. The need for special attention to 30 districts with low water supply was emphasized.

Implementing projects such as improving drinking water supply in Qushrabot district, reconstruction of water drainage systems in Bukhara and Jizzakh, and sewerage systems in the cities of Gulistan, Yangiyer, and Shirin were considered.

The work on cost optimization in Bukhara was called exemplary. Thus, $75 million was saved during the implementation of the project for the reconstruction of water treatment and sewerage systems in the city of Bukhara, costing $281 million. With these funds, building another 1,150 kilometers of water supply and 117 kilometers of sewer networks is possible.

The importance of optimizing costs in other projects and using saved funds to improve water supply and sewerage systems in the areas where projects are being implemented was noted.

Responsible officials in the sphere and regional hokims were given instructions on the technical and economic aspects of 24 promising projects.

Measures have also been defined to replace pumps with energy-saving analogs and financially stabilize enterprises.