Water supply systems in 24 cities, 248 villages to be rehabilitated in 5 years

Water supply systems in 24 cities and 248 villages of the republic will be rehabilitated in the next five years. The President of Kyrgyzstan Sooronbai Jeenbekov said at Clean Water for Regions Forum.
According to him, provision of populated areas of Kyrgyzstan with clean drinking water is one of the main directions of state policy. Over the past two years, decisive steps have been taken in this direction. For example, the National Development Strategy of Kyrgyzstan was adopted, in which supply of the population with clean drinking water was determined as priority.
The Government was tasked with providing 100 percent of the country's settlements with clean drinking water by 2023.
"As of today, large projects for 11.2 billion soms are being implemented in 20 cities and towns of the republic within the framework of Taza Suu project with the support of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Union and the Swiss Confederation. More than 65 percent of the funds are provided in the form of a grant, and the rest - in the form of a loan for 15 years with low interest rates," said the head of state.
In addition, from 2019, it is planned to start attracting investments from the EBRD, the EU and the Swiss Government, not only for cities, but also for rural areas. In the next five years, it is planned to build water supply systems in 369 villages. To address this issue, in addition to the support of international financial institutions, funds are also allocated from the republican budget.
"If in 2014 at least 25 million soms were allocated from the republican budget to solve the problem with clean drinking water, then this amount was increased to 250 million soms in 2018. The possibility of increasing this amount to 500 million soms is being considered," the President summed up.