Focus on rural drinking water

For Bakhtiyor Zoirov and his friends, keeping cool in the scorching summer heat of Tajikistan's southeastern Khatlon province couldn't be more natural. Diving into the cooling waters of a nearby irrigation canal - the same canal that provides drinking water for his village and irrigation for local cotton fields downstream - he retains a youthful sense of humour. "Sure it tastes funny, but we try to clean out the sand before drinking it," the 16-year-old told IRIN near the southern Tajik city of Kulyab, 200 km southeast of the capital Dushanbe. FACTS According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), some 43 percent of the population has no access to piped water, with nearly 25 percent of the former Soviet republic's population using gorges, canals, irrigation ditches and pools as their main sources of drinking water. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and five years of devastating civil war crippled the country's water supply infrastructure. Compounded by inadequate maintenance and an acute lack of funds, rural water supply systems largely collapsed. Once heavily subsidised by Moscow, Tajik authorities now lack the financial resources to address a key development challenge for the impoverished Central Asian state. The Tajik Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources responsible for maintaining irrigation infrastructure received US $72 million a year for operating and maintenance costs in 1990, while today receives $6.5 million - less than 10 percent its former levels.

Tajikistan is rich in water resources

Approximately 65 percent of the national water system - water mains and distribution networks - is dilapidated, but still functioning, while a third of the system has completely broken down. With water running for only a few hours at the beginning and end of each day in many areas, supplies are polluted as backpressure draws dirt and bacteria into worn out pipes. A poorly maintained water supply system, coupled by inefficient patterns of usage and frequent power shortages, has led to water being rationed in a country that is otherwise water-rich. Among the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), mountainous Tajikistan is second only to Russia in terms of water resources, a recent UN national development report revealed. The country's annual production of 13,000 cubic metres of water per person is among the highest in the world. PROBLEM IN RURAL AREAS But it is the rural areas of this former Soviet republic which suffer most, where according to Tajik authorities, less than 20 percent have access to piped water supplies. Poor water quality is a serious problem in many communities like Bakhtiyor's, whilst many others suffer from a severe lack of water. Inhabitants have little alternative but to draw water from unsanitary canals and natural ditches, while a disproportionate burden is placed on women and children, often young girls, to fetch water over long distances. "The analysis conducted by UNDP in Khatlon and Soghd oblasts [provinces] showed that bacteriological contamination is clearly a serious problem," Igor Bosc, UNDP deputy resident representative, told IRIN in Dushanbe. "With over 2,000 samples taken in each oblast, the proportion of samples exceeding regulation levels of contamination varied from 20.6 percent for chemical contaminants in Soghd to a worrying 54.7 percent for bacteriological contaminants in Khatlon," he said. And while results from 1997 to 2000 showed an even greater proportion of samples (around two thirds) were substandard, the task of improving the situation remains daunting. HEALTH IMPLICATIONS From 1997 to 2001, substandard water quality resulted in serious typhoid outbreaks in Dushanbe, Khatlon and Soghd Oblasts. "The incidence of acute enteric infections, typhoid fever, malaria and diphtheria - all related to the consumption of poor water - remains high in Tajikistan," Bosc said.

Women and children, often young girls, often have no choice but to walk for miles to fetch clean drinking water

As recently as Thursday, 50 people reportedly contracted typhoid in western Tajikistan, while 70 others were hospitalised with suspected cases of the disease in what could be the largest outbreak to hit the area in six years. The typhoid outbreak in Rudaki district, 20 km south of Dushanbe, was probably caused by a lack of clean drinking water, the Associated Press quoted Mirzo Umirzokov, chief doctor at the district hospital, as saying. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 60 percent of all diseases in the former Soviet republic were water-related, a fact echoed by health officials on the ground. Dr Nur Abdulhamidov, chief doctor at the Sairob village hospital, recalls how his own community experienced a serious outbreak of typhoid, diarrhoea and skin diseases after part of the village's water supply system broke down last year. "We had 14 cases of malaria," he told IRIN. "I'm busy every year and this year won't be any different." Compounding the problem further, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Dushanbe, reports the high occurrence of water-borne diseases is one of the main contributing factors leading to high rates of infant mortality, along with malnutrition, particularly more pronounced in rural areas. Data available for the Khatlon region showed an increase in cases of diarrhoeal disease from 25,000 in 1997 to over 30,000 in 2001, this year's United Nations Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP) for 2004 revealed. But the incidence of disease is between three and nine times higher in areas of irrigated agriculture like Bakhtiyor's, where ditch water provides the main source of water for most of the country's 7 million inhabitants.

A leaking bore hole in southern Khatlon, close to the Afghan border

"The heavy dependence on agriculture in Tajikistan and the resulting exposure to chemicals involved in cotton farming and other agricultural wastes all impact negatively on the nation's health," Bosc highlighted. And though the heart of the problem remains the lack of access to potable water, the importance of hygiene education and sanitation promotion cannot be underestimated. "Access to safe water needs to be improved, however, it requires more time and financial resources to fix the infrastructure problems," Yukie Mokuo, head of office for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), told IRIN in Dushanbe, noting the problem of schools. Upwards of 49 percent of all Tajik schools do not have access to safe drinking water, the UN estimates. "Nevertheless, by improving hygiene practices, the risks for damaging children's health and nutrition can be greatly reduced," Mokuo said. A WAY FORWARD But ensuring safe drinking water for all remains a challenge. The mountainous topography of the country presents major physical challenges to extending the water supply network.

Local residents work to repair a bore hole at a UNDP sponsored community water supply station in Hamadoni district, Khatlon

As part of its efforts, UNICEF is cooperating with rural water works on small community based water supply systems such as the installation of deep water hand pumps in rural villages. In a parallel effort, the agency has also been constructing a pour-flush water-sealed latrine in 200 schools in Khatlon and Soghd oblasts, providing better hygiene conditions to children. About 87 percent of all schools only have simple pit latrines; a factor discouraging girls' attendance, the CAP report revealed. UNICEF's Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion Through Schools programme mobilises children to carry out hygiene promotion activities in cooperation with the ministries of health and education. "The effectiveness of children's participation is shown in improving the hygiene practices," Mokuo said, noting while basic hygiene knowledge among children was there, good practice was not always properly followed. Risks of an outbreak of water-borne diseases remained high in both urban and rural areas, unless hygiene practices were improved among the population, the UNICEF official warned. Meanwhile, UNDP focuses its rural drinking water efforts mostly through its Communities Programme (former Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Development Programme), providing local communities greater control over their own water supplies by renovating existing water supply systems - many of which are in complete disrepair. To date, UNDP has completed a number of projects in Khatlon, Soghd and areas around the capital. For rural village water supply systems, the Communities Programme has promoted the establishment of local water management communities (WMC) whose members are elected by the community served by the water system.

Irrigation canals like this one have become a primary source of drinking water for many rural Tajik communities

Under this framework, the WMC, in turn, appoints one or two operators from the community, who are responsible for collecting fees for maintenance of local water supplies and their salaries. The establishment of the WMC and the appointment of operators are subsequently approved by the local water department and farm management. If there is major repair needed, the operators collect money from the community and contact the local water departments to carry out the repairs against payment. According to Bosc, even in villages where people are generally considered too poor to pay, people are contributing. Such was the case of the Mehnatobad community of Vose district, 30 km southwest of Kulyab, whose water supply system has just been overhauled by UNDP. Prior to that, hepatitis, typhoid and other such diseases were all too routine. Today local residents look forward to a brighter future. "We envision community participation and are working to mobilise people for that," 63-year-old Khursandoy Galuboeva, chairwoman of the local water user committee, told IRIN beside a recently repaired bore hole. "I'm sure the number of illnesses will be reduced." At the same time, water distribution is rationalised. Instead of a wasteful common system of one water outlet per house, without valves, which runs 24 hours, a new system of collective water points with automatic valves is introduced. And despite many concerns that rural people would not be receptive to innovations, the Communities Programme found in general enthusiasm for such improvements. Some villages have even set up systems of directly charging people from other villages who come to collect water. "It's not that difficult to change people's attitudes towards water. Where there is a will, there is a way," Mirzomurod Karimov, chairman of another water user committee in Chubek, told IRIN. ADDITIONAL EFFORTS While the efforts by UNDP and other international organisations are important, they are clearly not enough. According to Bosc, millions of inhabitants for whom rivers and irrigation ditches provide the main source of water clearly do not benefit from any form of centralised water treatment. In addition, purification efficiency of the existing plants still in operation does not exceed 50 percent. Less than 10 percent of the water in the main supply networks is adequately treated, the UNDP official added.

63-year-old Khursandoy Galuboeva believes people have no choice but to accept the cost factor

Shortages of chlorine, other coagulants, equipment and spare parts have hampered efforts to maintain water quality. The outflow of qualified water management personnel during the civil war has also impacted heavily on the system. Therefore, there was an urgent need to upgrade the technical and managerial competencies of existing personnel, he said. In the framework of the Millennium Development Programme, UNDP is currently working on estimating the exact cost of providing access to drinking water to the entire population in the next five years - a cost the country and its people have no choice but to meet. "Without water, there is no life," Galuboeva, a mother-of-eight and grandmother of six, said with a smile. "In Tajikistan there is a proverb - where there is water there is prosperity. People have suffered a lot because of the lack of water. That's why I think they will understand."