TASHKENT

France’s Suez Group will help Uzbekistan set up a modern water metering system, part of a 185-million euro ($220 million)  project to modernise urban water supply and sewerage networks, and improve their management in line with international standards.

Suez International, the Paris-based waste and water management company’s international arm, signed an agreement with Uzbekistan’s Housing and Communal Services Ministry to introduce the new system in the capital Tashkent, Tashkent city municipality said in a statement.

Last year, Suez , Tashkent city municipality and other communal services signed a joint management agreement to implement the Tashkent Water Sector Transformation Plan, to improve water supply and sanitation operations by installing sensors and control systems, analysis tools, and technical assistance and training of personnel.

The cost of the total project is 185.4 million euros, of which 142 million euros will be paid out through loans from leading European banks.

As Uzbekistan, the most populous country in Central Asia, takes steps to reform economy, it’s allowed international financial institutions as well as foreign companies to invest its ageing infrastructure, through projects to modernise its water supply, sewage and electricity supply systems.

In 2019, the Asian Development Bank (ADB)  approved a $105.3 million loan to help rehabilitate and expand the regional water supply system in two districts of the Tashkent province, delivering safe potable water to over 220,000 people.

Tashkent Province, Uzbekistan’s largest and most economically advanced region, generating almost 25 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, suffers from pervasive urban service limitations, particularly in water supply and sanitation. Most of its Soviet-era infrastructure is in bad condition and outdated. About 80 percent of residents in the two project districts are currently unable to receive municipal water supplies, forcing fhem to purchase or obtain unsafe water from various other sources.

The Asian Development Bank  is also involved in another project to develop water supply in the province, costing $124.7 million and due to be completed in 2025.  The project involves rehabilitating and improving the regional water supply system, building 65 kilometres (km) of transmission mains, 27 km of distribution mains, 540 km of distribution network, 37 water reservoirs and 22 water distribution centres.