Fresh drinking water is now available in rural Samarkand, thanks to a project funded by the European Union.

Can you imagine having no water at home? Impossible, isn't it.

Families in the Kupaki community of Samarkand region’s Payaryk district had for many years lived without access to clean drinking water. To get to water they had to build wells with depths of between 7 to 8 meters, and of course the quality of water from these wells was extremely poor. This had a negative impact on the health of the community’s population, given that 80% of illness was being caused by poor water quality.

What’s more the village has experienced crop losses in household plots and farms, caused by water shortages. Since the oldest times the people of the Kupaki village have grown vineyards, famous for producing renowned dried brown raisins which are sold at local markets and also exported abroad. In addition to grapes grown for personal consumption, the region’s produce also includes potatoes, tomatoes, onions, carrots and other vegetables. Cotton and cereals are planted in fields, while apples, hazelnuts, apricots, almonds and pomegranates are grown in household plots – valuable food sources for the rural population.

Due to being located in an arid zone, with a rapidly-growing population and a dynamic economy, Uzbekistan is among the world’s top 25 countries experiencing high degrees of water shortage. This situation is compounded by the country's vulnerability to climate change’s negative impacts. Given these factors, ensuring the population’s well-being and enhancing food security has required efficient water management and the careful use of every drop of water.

Clean water makes for a healthy community

Khosyat Jabborova is one of the oldest residents in Kupaki - she knows as well as anyone how hard it is to manage a household and live without easy access to clean water. Today Khosyat gets up early as usual, feeds and milks the cattle, and prepares breakfast for her family. At first glance it might just be a typical day in her life, but today is special. Guests are expected from the nearest city, who will visit the village’s ‘Khuja Buston’ Water Use Association and review its work in improving water supplies for farms.

At today’s meeting Khosyat Jabborova plans, on behalf of the women of the village, to raise a question about the need to provide everyone with good access to fresh drinking water. Among the day’s guests will be the UNDP Regional Bureau Director Cihan Sultanoğlu. Khosyat wants to turn to her for help, given that UNDP is the implementing partner for the fresh water project funded by the European Union delegation to Uzbekistan.

Although initially the project did not include a plan for establishing a drinking water system at Kupaki, thanks to Khosyat Jabborova and her insistency during the meeting with the guests from UNDP, the project received approval to construct a rural drinking water supply system in the community. 

Within a year the construction plan had been developed, a tender was arranged, and then came the long-awaited day when clean drinking water started to be supplied to the village’s population. 

“You can’t imagine how happy the people in our community are, especially women and children, now that we have access to clean and safe water. Before there used to many diseases, especially infectious ones, because our water was very poor quality,” said village resident Tursunkul Rahmonov, reflecting on the support provided during these challenging times. “Now, I hope that our quality of life will be better.”

The Kupaki village’s Rural Drinking Water Facility will meet the needs of 2,300 people, as well as its school for 450 students, kindergarten for 120 children and rural medical center. The source of safe and pure water will substantially improve health, well-being and quality of life in the village.

Working with farmers to improve irrigation

The project funded by the European Union within the ‘Technical capacity building’ component of the broader EU program on the ‘Sustainable Management of Water Resources in rural areas in Uzbekistan’, as implemented by UNDP in cooperation with the Ministry of Water Resources, has worked with rural populations to improve their access to irrigation water. One successful example of cooperation between the project and local partners has been the commissioning of the Nishab pump station, with its pressure pipeline that provides irrigation water to the population and farmers of the Payaryk district in the Samarkand region.

The commissioned Nishab pump station will deliver water to 70 households and 370 hectares of farmland which has previously suffered water shortages and economic losses due to crop failures. Irrigation water is to be delivered from a source located below the level of fields and lands, helping ensure stable water supplies at times where there’s a shortage at the main source. Farmers and community members will be able to sow their fields and household plots, which is critically important when food production is a matter of strategic importance, and when every piece of land has to generate the greatest possible level of return.

“Recently a drinking water supply system has been put into operation, and now the Nishab pumping station will provide water to the household plots of our community’s people, and to the lands of our farmers,” said Abdurahmon Karimov, chairperson of the ‘Khuja Buston’ Water Use Association.

“Thanks to the project’s support, we have been able to utilize allocated water resources with the greatest efficiency.We can say for sure that this year's harvest will be good, which will positively impact the living standards of all of us.”

The commissioning of the new pumping station occurred just when Uzbekistan was making every possible effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19. At a time when people in Uzbekistan and across the world are facing a crisis in healthcare and food security, access to safe drinking and irrigation water is more important than ever.

The ‘Khuja Buston’ association has been chosen as a pilot initiative. UNDP has provided comprehensive assistance to the association, with a new office having been built and supplied with furniture and equipment, while vehicles have also been purchased for the association’s use. Earlier this year mobile water meters for strengthening the community’s water metering and distribution system were handed over. Meanwhile the reconstruction of the ‘Khuja Buston’ canal has been of particular help to farmers, reducing water losses during transportation and distribution by up to 30%. This has significantly improved the village’s water supply, and enhanced its population’s socio-economic well-being.

Nationwide improvements to water supplies

The joint EU and UNDP project has reconstructed the main canals of pilot water user associations and irrigation systems through Uzbekistan, while installing pumping stations with pipelines, and building and reconstructing bridges with hydroposts. A unified power supply system has been created for pumping stations positioned along main canals, while assistance has been offered in terms of the technical equipment provided to water user organizations.

The project has a special component creating a professional body of water management specialists and Associations, through which 3,447 specialists have been trained. Educational and research institutes have been equipped with office equipment, modern electronic levels, and software and land reclamation complexes, to be utilized in compiling, monitoring and analyzing data.

Within the project’s framework normative acts have been developed for regulating contractual relations between water suppliers and consumers, including the registration of contracts with water users for large inter-regional and transboundary strategic objects and their monitoring. Also it is important to mention that the project has offered support in improving the regulatory framework for the wider introduction of water-saving technologies in agriculture. In particular, normative documents have been developed which regulate the water requirements of crops, the quality and capacity of water supply sources, and both the quality of drip irrigation systems and the requirements for their transportation, installation and operation.