Water & Health
About this project
According to official data of the Ministry of industry and infrastuctural development in Kazakhstan 92.6% of the population has an access to centralized water supply system, in rural areas it is 64.3%. However citizens in regions often complain on the quality of drinking water and in some regions there are some patterns of deceases among population. Drinking water quality standards in Kazakhstan differs from the standards in OECD countries in the way that concentrations of several chemical substances in the drinking water are not regulated in the legislation of Kazakhstan. Within this project we will analyze drinking water quality standards in Kazakhstan and OECD countries, and prepare report with recomendations in order to improve the quality of water.
Access to safe drinking water is one of the goals set by the UN in Sustainable Development goals 2030. Kazakhstan has taken responsibility to implement SDG 2030, and currently taking measures in order to reach the goals. However, in official data access of the population to drinking water is shown in percentage, and people from regions often complain on the quality of drinking water from centralized system of water supply. Considering abovementioned issues, we decided to analyze all data related to the access to safe drinking water all over Kazakhstan, and on the online map that will be open to everyone show access of population to drinking water and its quality all over Kazakhstan. The map will be helpful in informing general public, civil society and probably will mobilize resources of public funds in order to solve the issues with access to drinking water in the regions where population suffers from lack of access. In this component existing data of the Public Health Department will be used. Also recommendations will be given to the Public Health Department of the Ministry of Kazakhstan in order to make results of drinking water quality analysis available to general public via their website.
Kazakhstan is located in the lower reaches of the rivers that flows from neighboring countries such as Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, China and Russia. And heavily depends on the policies and norms of these countries. Shared use of water together with diplomacy requires unified attitude to the assessment of the quality of water in rivers. In Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries standards on the quality of water in rivers differs. And this needs to be harmonized. Considering this within this project water quality standard in Central Asian countries will be analyzed and recommendations on harmonization of standards will be developed and it will be given to the Ministry of ecology, geology and natural resources of Kazakhstan for further use.
Goals and Objectives
This project aims to analyze drinking water quality standard in Kazakhstan and prepare recommendations for improvement, as a result there might be additional steps of treatment installed at the city level.
Also project aims to make existing data on the access of population to the drinking water and quality of drinking water available to general public in the form of online map. This will enebale public control of state programs in water area and also will mobilize public funds in order to solve existing issues with drinking water.
Project also aims to analyze water quality standards in Central Asian countries and prepare recommendations to harmonize standards. This will make easier transboundary cooperation on shared water use.
Expected result
As a result recommendation will be given (in the form of report) to the Ministry of Health in order to consider harmonization of the drinking water quality standards with the ones in OECD countries. This component will cover all population of Kazakhstan.
Online map will be developed that will be open to everyone and show access of population to drinking water and its quality all over Kazakhstan.
Recommendations on harmonization of standards will be developed and it will be given to the Ministry of ecology, geology and natural resources of Kazakhstan for further use. This will make easier transboundary cooperation on shared water use.
This project can be replicated in other Central Asian countries by interested parties.
Sustainable Development Goals
Partners
About me / organisation
Union of individual entrepreneurs and legal entities "Association of practicing ecologists"
Association of practicing ecologists is an independent NGO that was formed in 2018 in Kazakhstan in order to gather professional ecologists of the country, represent voices of professional ecologists during decision-making process on a governmental level on environmental matters, serve as a bridge between governmental organisations and professional ecologists and take measures in order to improve environmental awareness of general public. The organization cooperates with ecologists of Central Asian countries, and head of the Association of practicing ecologits represented young ecologists of Central Asia in the UN climate summit in 2019 in New-York. Currently Association of practicing ecologists as a member of working group in the Parliament is actively involved in the development and review of the new Ecological Code of Kazakhstan.
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