The impact of the quality of water they drink on the health of Kazakhstanis was discussed today in the Mazhilis. Parliamentary hearings were held there on the issue of providing populated areas with drinking water.

Pavel Gryaznov lives in the village of Lebyazhye. He says there have always been problems with water supply here. In 2013, they promised to supply water to houses. They dug up all the streets and laid pipes. Actually, that's all. 160 million tenge allocated for water supply were simply buried in the ground.

Pavel Gryaznov, resident of the village of Lebyazhye:

- People hoped that there would be water. But as you can see for yourself, it turns out there are holes and bumps. My wife takes care of my grandmothers and provides social assistance at home. The horse saves. They themselves will not go there, to the water pumping station.

Local authorities have already taken this issue under control. But only in one village. And there are more than four thousand of them across the country, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

How to solve the problem was discussed today in the Mazhilis for almost 3 hours. Deputies, akims, and experts tried to answer the main question: why is it not always possible to provide water to ordinary Kazakhstanis everywhere?

Nurlan Nigmatulin, Chairman of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan:

- Now, unfortunately, we see that situations often arise when the built group water supply system cannot supply water to a populated area due to the unavailability of intra-village networks, or vice versa. All this leads not only to ineffective use of budget funds, but also to the lack of quality drinking water for the population. The reason for this is the lack of a single operator for the construction and operation of water supply infrastructure in populated areas. And this despite the fact that the Head of State has repeatedly given instructions to work on the issue of creating a single national operator.

The Ministry of Agriculture supported the idea. They say that a single operator will help not only provide water to the population faster, but also save budget money. According to the plans, one of the Kazakh companies will manage the construction and reconstruction of water networks.

Askar Myrzakhmetov, Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan:

- We are considering the following solution. To designate the RSE “Kazvodkhoz” as a single operator for the construction and reconstruction of not only main lines, but also all water supply networks in rural settlements. This is due to the fact that this is the only organization that has the necessary personnel, material, technical, design and scientific base.

Returning to the issue of budget money, the deputies did not miss the opportunity to ask why the water supply system is built the same, but the cost is different everywhere.

Pavel Kazantsev, deputy of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan:

- The cost of projects for 1 kilometer of water supply in the same region is different and varies by 3 times. What is the basis for such significant discrepancies in project costs? What measures are provided to control the validity of costs when developing design estimates?

Zhenis Kasymbek, Minister of Investment and Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan:

- The water itself has an effect. That is, surface water sources, at depths, water quality, pollution. The distance between houses, height and many other factors can also affect the cost of the project. Each project is unique.

Irina Kamyshova, correspondent:

- Water must be safe first and foremost. To determine the total microbial count, you can do a rapid test. This is a water analyzer, and this is ordinary tap water. The National Center of Expertise gave us a highlight pen, which we put into the water. Then we insert it into the device and determine how clean the water is. The norm is 50. The device showed 6. This means that the water can be consumed as food without harm to health.

But the test can only be done in a laboratory. What about ordinary villagers? In 68 villages of Kazakhstan they drink untreated water from springs and rivers, the Ministry of Health announced today. And 1.5 million villagers don’t even know what’s in their glasses: in 3 thousand villages, sanitary epidemiologists simply don’t check the life-giving moisture.

Kuralai Karaken, deputy of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan:

- How did the objects of the drinking water supply system fall out of the group of high epidemic significance?

Alexey Tsoi, Deputy Minister of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan:

- This was due to the fact that about 70% of the objects were ownerless, and the effectiveness of inspections remained low. We believe that now the ownerless objects are being transferred step by step and are being registered; we consider it possible to include these objects in the list of objects subject to special control checks.

While officials are addressing issues with financing, control and quality, the Association of Water Supply Companies is asking for a separate law to be developed. It would have been called that - about water supply and sanitation. In the meantime, public utilities are forced to work according to one thing - the water code.

Valery Syundyukov, President of the Association of Water Supply and Wastewater Enterprises “Kazakhstan Su Arnasy”:

- Introduce into a special law that would cover the legal relationship between the consumer and the service provider, financial issues, relationships with government agencies, and all aspects of the activities of enterprises. I would like to express my gratitude to the organizers of the parliamentary hearings for such attention and readiness to resolve problematic issues.

In order for all taps in the country to have clean water, Kazakhstan needs more than a trillion tenge. The Asian Development Bank is ready to support the country in this, and on attractive terms.

Giovanni Capannelli, Director of the Permanent Mission of the Asian Development Bank in the Republic of Kazakhstan:

- We support the long-term strategic vision of President Nazarbayev and are confident that the successful implementation of existing programs is the most important step in achieving the goals of the Kazakhstan-2050 strategy. The Asian Development Bank plans to invest about one trillion tenge by 2021 in agriculture, water supply, energy, rural and urban development, transport, healthcare, education and SME financing.

During the hearings, parliamentarians raised the issue of fair tariff setting. Deputies are confident that tariffs should be subsidized for socially vulnerable segments of the population. Based on the results of the hearings, parliamentarians compiled a list of recommendations. And so that everything that has been said does not slip through our fingers, the Majilismen took control of the implementation of the plans.

Authors : Irina Kamyshova, Azamat Sametov, Nauryz Bazarov