Many of the 10 million inhabitants of the Fergana Valley in Central Asia suffer from diseases transmitted by polluted water. A project financed by the SDC enables 130,000 villagers to have access to water that is safe to drink. They are also being taught how to cope with problems on their own.

The Fergana Valley is occupied by the three republics of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and is considered one of the “breadbaskets” of Central Asia. There is much poverty in this heavily populated valley. None of the three republics is in a position to be able to supply the region with clean water.
Most of the inhabitants in the villages of the Fergana Valley obtain their water from irrigation channels, which for the most part is meltwater from the surrounding mountains. The water in these channels, which are quite distant from the villages, is polluted and not fit to drink.

The Regional Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project which is financed by the SDC will enable some 130,000 villagers in rural areas of the Fergana Valley in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to have access to water that is safe to drink. The villages are assisted in their indigenous efforts to develop and maintain safe supplies of potable water. Existing water systems are renovated, and villages without supplies are connected to a system. To enable the villagers to care for and maintain the supply infrastructure themselves, the project also helps develop local management structures. The villagers have to keep a check on the pumps and the sterilisation system as well as the water conduits, tanks and wells. They also need to take care that the system is not allowed to freeze up in the winter.

Another concern of the project is to train the villagers in matters of hygiene. This means teaching and showing them how to reduce the risk of infection, for example by washing their hands and cleaning water containers.

The project in brief