DUSHANBE, July 28, 2011, Asia-Plus — Current number of water users in Dushanbe exceeds 170,000 and only 5 percent of them have water meters, Deputy Dushanbe Mayor, Nasrullo Khairulloyev, announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on July 27.
According to him, water meters have been installed mainly at public catering enterprises, in ministries and federally funded institutions (schools, hospitals, kindergartens and so forth).
“Meanwhile, the rate of installation of water meters in residential buildings is very low,” noted the deputy mayor, “Therefore, the mayor’s office has decided to resume the Dushanbe water supply project and at first, residential water meters will be installed on the first and second floors of apartment buildings.”
He reminded that under the Second Dushanbe Water Supply Project, the Word Bank will provide a US$16 million grant and 76,500 residential water meters will be installed within the next five years.
The objective of the Second Dushanbe Water Supply Project for Tajikistan is to improve water utility performance and water supply services in selected areas of Dushanbe. There are four components to the project, the first component being metering and demand management. The component will finance consumption metering and bulk metering of water, for increased revenue, reduced wastage, and better tracking of losses. The second component is the water quality improvement. The components will support system upgrades for improved quality of water, including network cleaning. The third component is the institutional strengthening and capacity building. The component will finance activities to build institutional capacity and improve utility performance of Dushanbe’s municipal waterworks (Dushanbe Vodokanal or DVK), which includes: carrying out an assessment of DVK”s organizational and capacity-building needs; and installation of modern accounting, billing and water revenue collection systems. Finally, the fourth component is the implementation support.
