Access to Drinking Water and Sanitation in Rural Kazakhstan

Abstract

Abstract:The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) require nations to ensure adequate water supply for all. For Kazakhstan, this means that rural areas will need much stronger attention as they have been rather neglected in efforts to comply with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This study aims to establish a baseline data concerning the current situation in villages that will need interventions according to the SDGs. The study was performed by means of questionnaires. The results should be seen as initial guidelines that can help to illuminate some of the uncounted challenges in future efforts to meet the SDG targets. As hardly any information exists about sanitation in rural Kazakhstan, the study essentially focuses on water services. The results show that 65% of rural dwellers want to connect and pay for the piped water supply. At the same time, about 80% have toilets outside their home. Consequently, the water program aiming at providing 80% of rural people with access to tap water from a centralized piped system will not be possible. However, by carefully managing the existing water supply and sanitation system in joint collaboration with the local users, significant progress can be made. The present results show the important first steps that need to be taken in this direction.

Seasonal and Annual Rainfall Variability and Their Impact on Rural Water Supply Services in the Wami River Basin, Tanzania

“…Rainfall seasonality affects water access in terms of both quality and availability, as well as water point functionality. Several studies have discovered that in rural areas of developing countries, water supply services are hardly sufficient [49][50][51]. These are mainly a result of seasonal variation [23,[52][53][54] and implies that an increase in demand for drinking water seasonally will potentially occur.…”

Pitfalls of Wastewater Treatment in Oil Refinery Enterprises in Kazakhstan—A System Approach

“…This is reflected in an infiltration of pollutants into the groundwater. According Kazakhstani Sanitary and epidemiological requirements for water sources, groundwater could be used for non-centralized drinking water supply; this is especially relevant because about half the rural population uses decentralized water sources and about 40% of population live in rural areas in Kazakhstan [103,104]. Thus, the government established this standard for groundwater quality in observation wells to eliminate risk of groundwater pollution and prevent public health hazards.…”

Quality of Drinking Water in the Balkhash District of Kazakhstan’s Almaty Region

“…Almost all of the 34 villages in the district, including the nine studied here, have access to centralized water. This is a favorable situation, given that such access averages just 29% in rural Kazakhstan [3] and can be less than 5% in villages of the nearby Pavlodar Region [69]. The service is nevertheless used by an average of just 59% of residents in the villages (range = 12.5-95%).…”

“…This is because residents either lack access to centralized water (distribution systems in the Balkhash District often do not extend to cover the entire area of each village) or choose not to connect to the available system. Cost, a known impediment to the use of centralized water [69], was cited as one reason for not connecting, but other disincentives have also been identified [2].…”