BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (Asia Water Wire) – Officials in this central Asian nation are looking ahead into a dry and dusty summer with few options for raising supply for meeting the growing demand for clean drinking water.

   There is a shortage of clean drinking water not only in the provinces but also in Bishkek, the capital. 

   Early this month Arstanbek Nogoev, Bishkek’s mayor, did an assessment of the supply of potable water in four districts but had little to say to reassure the people. 

   The quality of water does not meet the sanitation standards, he said.

   “The main cause for the outbreak of stomach-infections is poor quality drinking water,” says Raimbek Nurgaziev, Chief physician at the Centre of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Supervision (CSSES) in Bishkek.

   Most of the patients he has recently examined come from new residential areas of the city. 

   Kyrgyzstan has a fairly sound water supply infrastructure but has had problems maintaining the supply quality.

   One water source supplying the city lies near an area where cattle killed by Siberian ulcer were buried when Kyrgyzstan was under Soviet rule. 

   The government is now moving the inhabitants living near the burial ground to safer locations but the process has been agonizingly slow. 

   "I am scared even to wash floors with this water. I think I would have to move to a new apartment somewhere else. It is too dangerous to live here," says Svetlana Nikonova, an inhabitant of Tunguch, one of the new areas of the city.

   The mayor has promised to dismiss Raimbek Nurgaziev, Chief physician of CSSES, if the situation gets out of control.

   Biskhek has about 800,000 people and the drinking water available is largely enough for meeting their needs.

   But that has not been the case because, according to the city authorities, more than 120 companies have been using drinking water for industrial use. The city has said it would fine the offenders.

   In 2002, roughly 76 percent of the people of Kyrgyzstan had access to “improved” drinking water, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The coverage in the urban centres was close to 98 percent while only 66 percent of the rural population had access to clean water.

   Much of the water-shortage has to do with poor planning and implementation of new supply schemes and the failure to restore and maintain existing systems.

   In March this year the public prosecutor at Osh, the southern capital of Kyrgyzstan, charged a senior government official and the contracting agency of misappropriating three million soms (about 75,000 U.S. dollars) meant for laying down drinking water lines at suburban Zhapalak.

   The project began three years ago but during an inspection early this year the provincial water supply department found that the private company had not installed all the household connections it was required to under the contract.

   There have also been reports of outbreaks of waterborne diseases in other parts of the country. Eight people were hospitalized in Mailu-Suu city of Jalal-Abad province early this month.

   Experts of the provincial sanitary and epidemiological supervision centre said the main reason for the outbreak of stomach ailments is the poor quality of drinking water.

   A similar outbreak two years ago had caused more than a hundred people to become ill with stomach-related ailments, and the issue had even forced the then mayor of the town to resign.

   Providing ‘taza suu’ (clean drinking water) to all is a government priority but it has been unable to move fast enough to address to the growing demand for reliable supply.

   “We cannot say we have put all things in order, but we are trying,” says Kamilla Talieva, vice governor of Jalal Abad. “We need time”.

(END/AWW/IPSAP/EK/BB/06)