Rural Water Supply and Sanitation in the Fergana Valley, Tajikistan

In Tajikistan access to safe drinking water is one of the key development challenges. According to estimations, 46% of the rural population does not have access to safe drinking water. About 70% of all infectious diseases are intestinal and most of them are waterborne and related to hygiene. Access to environmentally safe and hygienically clean latrines or sanitation facilities in rural areas is evidently insufficient. Knowledge regarding aspects of health and hygiene must be significantly improved trough training, in order to reach the targeted improvements.

The overall goal of the project is to improve the rural population’s health through sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS) and improved household hygiene and hygienic behaviour. It strives to build up a fully autonomous RWSS sector based on the promotion of decentralised management of water systems.

• 50.000 women, men and children in rural areas of Tajik Fergana Valley
• Community-based WUAs, and their employees, which will act as operators of the newly constructed and rehabilitated systems, funded by the project
• Hukumats and other district level government officials and decision-makers, civil society organizations and CBOs who will receive training and other capacity development support 

• Enhanced policy and legal environment for sustainable provision of hygienically safe rural water supply and sanitation is in place at national level
• Transparent and streamlined processes for the selection of villages and management of the Water User Associations (WUAs) are developed, integrated and replicated at all levels
• Rural population in the target areas (including children), have improved health and convenient access to safe rural water supply and sanitation
• Capacities of the Local Water Operators to effectively manage and maintain water supply and sanitation systems are in place 

Results from previous phases:  

This proposed single phase is based on the experiences developed by the International Secretariat for Water (ISW) and SDC in Tajikistan. Since February 2007, 6 villages representing 39,000 people have been supplied with safe drinking water. All the water systems are managed locally by the population (community based management) and 4 out of those 6 villages are interconnected and fed by one single source of safe water. All water associations are registered as legal entities. A full cost recovery tariff is designed for each water system and approved by the population. The regulations for the application of the tariff system take into account poor segments of the population. The collection rate is steadily increasing and slowly reaching the breakeven point fixed at 85% collection rate. An external evaluation conducted in May 2012 concluded that the project was highly relevant due to the critical situation in the water and sanitation sector, that the work of the Water Structures in charge of the management of the water system at village level is particularly effective and efficient and that physical targets were with relatively high cost effectiveness. Moreover a consultancy conducted in March 2013 for preparing the tender, the Swiss RWSS program states that the project has a positive impact on the livelihood and health of the population. It also considers necessary to put a specific focus on hygiene and sanitation, tariff policy and institutional set up issues.

Phase 1 01.01.2014 - 31.12.2019   (Completed)