Project implementation support for the complete rehabilitation of the water supply infrastructure of Kyrgyzstan’s fourth biggest city

Karakol Water project

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), has been supporting the rehabilitation of water infrastructures in Kyrgyzstan for over a decade. Since 2009, the EBRD funded projects in a dozen municipalities throughout the Central Asian nation. For the latest in the line of water supply projects, Stantec was awarded the contract for providing implementation support to the beneficiary, the city of Karakol.

Water supply operations throughout the Republic of Kyrgyzstan are severely outdated. Deteriorated assets for both water supply as well as wastewater treatment are causing severe dangers to the population. Due to the poor state of irrigation networks in the city and the weak work to inform the population, people use drinking water for irrigation, as a result of which the Karakol Water Company dispenses three times the volume of water intended, which in turn adds to the quality of water decreasing. Through a series of well-designed projects, the EBRD has been addressing this situation by sharing knowledge and providing support, to help local governments provide operationally and financially sustainable water supply services.

The city of Karakol is the fourth largest city in the country with approximately 74,000 inhabitants. Our team is assisting the city-owned Karakol Water Company throughout the process of rehabilitating the water supply infrastructure. This firstly means the establishment of the project implementation unit (PIU), which leads the project from within the Karakol Water Company. Stantec also assists in the design, procurement, tendering and contract implementation, as well as compliance and reporting obligations. And the team will provide implementation support for the required measures from social and environmental plans; and activities related to energy efficiency in buildings projects.

The project in Karakol was co-financed with grants from the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). SECO also bilaterally implemented a municipal water project in Karakol from 2005 to 2015.