State Program for Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation for 2025–2029, builds on earlier water sector reforms and aims to significantly improve access to safe drinking water and sanitation services nationwide. It recognizes rapid population growth, climate change impacts, and aging infrastructure as major pressures on water resources and services. Currently, only about 41% of the population has access to drinking water systems and 15% to sanitation services, with strong disparities between urban and rural areas. Groundwater is the main water source, while many rural residents rely on wells, springs, rivers, or transported water, often with limited quality control. The Program identifies key challenges in the sector, including poor infrastructure condition, insufficient financing, high water losses, weak management capacity, and inadequate monitoring of water quality—especially in rural systems. Financial sustainability is a major issue: revenues from user payments cover only around 60% of operating costs, electricity expenses are high, and water losses in some systems reach up to 60%, far above international best practice. Sanitation services are particularly underdeveloped, with most households relying on pit latrines that do not meet environmental or health standards. Institutional weaknesses, limited technical skills, and gaps in regulation further constrain service quality and expansion. To address these issues, the Program sets ambitious targets and priority actions for 2025–2029. It aims to increase drinking water coverage to 72% of the population and sanitation coverage to 30% by 2029, while ensuring at least basic services for the rest. Key measures include modernization of infrastructure, improved water quality standards, tariff reform, universal metering and billing systems, reduction of technical losses, workforce training, and stronger governance and transparency. The total planned financing amounts to approximately 3.03 billion somoni, sourced from national and local budgets, development partners, the private sector, and consumers. The Program also establishes monitoring, coordination, and risk management mechanisms to ensure effective implementation and long-term sustainability of the water and sanitation sector.
Tajikistan · 2025-05-29