Water supplies present potential health risks in west

Following a three-month mission to six provinces in Kyrgyzstan, a scientist from the US Environmental Protection Agency maintained that drinking water supplies and waste water treatment in the west of the country were in dire need of upgrading to prevent widespread health problems. "What is going on there is shocking," John Johnston, told IRIN in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, referring to the Kyzyl-Adyr village in the Kara Buura region of western Talas province as an example. "There is no central waste water or sewage treatment system in the district. People in multi-storey apartment buildings use cesspools, which are rarely pumped, allowing untreated wastewater to overflow into yards where people routinely come into contact with it." According to Akylbek Alimbekov, a local Kara Buura official, a waste water treatment system had been started in 1989 but construction had ceased following the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the country's subsequent independence in 1991. To date just 30 percent of the system had been completed, he told IRIN. Since the early nineties, a private company, Vodokanal, has been responsible for the construction and management of the water supply network in many Kyrgyz towns and villages, but given economic constraints, many users - both domestic and commercial - had not paid their monthly fees to the firm, resulting in substandard maintenance of the system. "Only one sanitation truck is working, even though 15 of them are necessary to service the waste water system of the region," a civic official in Kara Buura, Baktybek Kurmanbaev, told IRIN. Untreated waste water from the 100-bed Kyzyl-Adyr hospital is currently being allowed to flow directly into the Kara- Suu river, emptying into the Kirov water reservoir. "This reservoir is used for fishery and irrigation of the Talas oblast and neigbouring Kazakhstan areas. It poses a threat to the health of all reservoir users," Kurmanbaev complained. Inside the hospital is no better. There are no working toilets in the facility because the waste water system is blocked. Moreover, there is no money to fix it, forcing patients to use substandard public facilities across the street. In short, what should be a place of wellness, has become a place patients dread to go to. Other basics like hot water are also not available. "We installed a small water heater to provide hot water at least for the surgery department to service medical operations," the hospital's chief, Anarbek Osmonaliev, told IRIN. Most drinking water in the region comes out from underground sources, but purification and sterilisation of potable water remains basic. The most common process is the use of a settling basin that allows sediment and other large particles to sink to the bottom, however, bacteria and other disease carrying organisms often remain. Surface water also serves as a source for drinking water. Treatment systems for surface water supplies range from settling basins and chlorination to no treatment, other than filtering the water through metal grates. Although most surface water supply intakes observed during this project were located upstream of populated areas, the risk for viral and bacterial infection remained, Johnston noted. Meanwhile, despite government promises, some local NGOs are not waiting for Bishkek to act and are working to improve the situation themselves. The "Kelechek" community, under the guidance of the "Zirina" NGO, won a US $5000 grant in May to rehabilitate the waste water system in the Kyzyl Adyr village. The money will be used to clean and rebuild waste water pipes and construct new septic tanks to hold and treat waste water. The situation is currently so bad that broken sewage pipes run parallel to damaged water supply lines, making it possible for sewage to enter the water supply system. This would have disastrous results. The US environmentalist submitted his report to the Kyrgyz Ecology and Emergency Ministry.