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- Specialised water supply system maintenance equipment delivered to Uzgen
- 48,000 local residents will have access to safe drinking water
- 10,000 customers will have access to wastewater services
Major upgrades of water and wastewater services are taking place in the ancient city of Uzgen in the southern part of the Kyrgyz Republic. The municipality with limited water supply services and no centralised sewage system is set to implement an ambitious upgrade of its key utilities supported by a financing package of US$11 million provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Union (EU), the European Investment Bank (EIB).
Today specialised maintenance vehicles and equipment, worth more that €400,000 were handed over to the municipal enterprise in a ceremony attended by Mukhtar Khalmatov, mayor of Uzgen, Azamat Duisheev, Director of municipal water company, Eduard Auer, EU Ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic, and Neil McKain, EBRD Director for Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. This is an important milestone for the project designed to secure uninterrupted water supply and wastewater services in the city.
The municipality founded over 2000 years ago and once a key trading post in the Fergana Valley, have been affected by the lack of investment in key water and wastewater infrastructure. Access to safe drinking water and better sanitation are particularly important during the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result of this project, over two thirds of nearly 59,000 people living in Uzgen will be covered by the expanded water services. 10,000 people will have access to modern wastewater services following the construction of a new wastewater treatment plant and a sewage network. The number of users of the latter is set to quadruple once the investment programme is fully implemented and the network is further extended.
Grant funds of €1 million provided by the EU and Japan are helping the municipal water utility improve its management and corporate governance principles.
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From 2014 to 2020, the EU supported the Kyrgyz Republic with €174 million of financing in areas such as education, integrated rural development and the rule of law. During the same period, the EU provided €90,5 million in grants to support investments, mainly in the water sector.
The European Investment Bank invested EUR 112 million in support of sustainable social and economic development of the Kyrgyz Republic. Since the beginning of our operations in the country, in 2017, the EU bank supported projects in some of the key sectors of Kyrgyz economy – agriculture, fisheries and forestry, as well as in solid waste management, water and sewage infrastructure and energy distribution.
The EBRD has invested in 24 water and wastewater improvement projects in the Kyrgyz Republic, worth over €187 million, including €72 million worth of loans and €115 million in grants, mainly from the EU and the government of Switzerland. The EBRD has launched a response and recovery package, which includes a Vital Infrastructure Support Programme, recognising the critical role of maintaining key infrastructure services.
To date, the EBRD has invested a total €795 million through 191 projects in the Kyrgyz Republic, with the majority of investments supporting private entrepreneurship.