Residents of the Khatlon region complain about the lack of access to drinking water for many years, but no one is trying to solve this problem.
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Orosta, a 48-year-old resident of the village of Lolazor in Vakhsh district in southern part of Tajikistan is concerned that she has to provide drinking water for a family of seven.
There is no running water in the village where she lives with her family. They store up water during rain and snow. However, since in the hot south of Tajikistan, rain and snow fall only in the short winter period, most often they buy water.
“This year there was almost no precipitation and we can’t always get water. Now we buy one tank from a water carrier for 200 somoni (around 18 US dollars), but we cannot always afford it,” says our speaker.
In the village where Orosta lives, there are 70 households that have not had running water for the last 30 years. Residents store meltwater or rainwater in specially dug holes and drink it until the end of spring. In the summer and autumn, they have to buy drinking water.
The inhabitants would have left this village long ago, but it is difficult to do so. After all, no one will buy a house in an area where there is no water.
In the Lolazor village of the Mashal jamoat of the Vakhsh district, there has been no drinking water since Soviet times; the pipeline from the Vakhsh River to the village has been destroyed long ago.
Tura Kalandarov, a resident of the village of Lolazor, says that he buys four tons of water at a price of 200 somoni (about 18 US dollars) and above. This is enough for a family of eight people for a week.
“Rainwater flows down from the roof into the pits, we leave it for drinking. Sometimes it is full of worms and smells bad, but we have to use it, we have no choice,” says Kalandarov.
Tomchi, a mountainous village in the Kushoniyon district is located in the south of Tajikistan. Residents of this village also complain that they live on rainwater, snowmelt and purchased water. They have repeatedly appealed to the authorities but their problems remain unresolved.
According to official data of the Water Management Department of Khatlon region, there is no access to clean drinking water in about 30 villages. Residents of the city and district centers of the Khatlon region sometimes face similar difficulties.
Gulnora Toshkadieva is a 30-year-old resident of the village of Ittifok in the Vakhsh district. About 90 families live here and all of them have to carry drinking water from a distance of two kilometers – they draw water from a tributary of the Vakhsh River.
According to her, together with her minor son, they carry up to 60 liters of water a day. Like her, women and children from the “Twenty Years of Independence” jamoat spend all their free time carrying drinking water.
The authorities say that the problems of these villages are solvable, but they are not in a hurry to solve them.
The lack of drinking water is most acute in the Vakhsh, Kushoniyon, Balkh and Khuroson districts of the region.
In September 2018, the World Bank launched a new program in the Khatlon region, which envisages provision of water supply and compliance with sanitary and hygienic standards in rural areas. The project, worth 58 million US dollars, was provided to Tajikistan in the form of a grant or grant aid.
It was said that the problem with water in Khatlon would be solved in the next five years. However, residents say they have not heard any promises from anyone to help solve these problems.
The project provides clean drinking water for 400,000 people and the construction of sanitary facilities or toilets for 100,000 children and adolescents. Although the authorities say that the work has begun, local residents say that there have been no changes in this direction.
Based on this project it is planned to resolve the issue of access to clean drinking water in the districts of Vakhsh, Levakand, Kushoniyon, Dusti, Jaloliddini Balkhi, Jaihun and Vose.
The regional authorities confirmed the problem of water shortage for residents, saying that the situation has improved over the past two years.
One of the responsible persons of Housing and Communal Services of Khatlon region reported that 86 percent of rural residents of the region do not have access to safe drinking water.
The Government of Tajikistan has declared, “Year of clean water” for several years in a row, aimed at providing residents with drinking water, but this problem still remains unresolved.