The Agency for Information and Mass Communications under the Administration of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan hosted a press conference with the participation of the leaders and officials of Uzsuvtaminot JSC, dedicated to the results of the work carried out in 2022 and plans for the current year.

Information was provided on the work carried out in drinking water supply and sanitation, the results achieved and indicators.

It was noted that in 2022, 3.3 trillion UZS of budget funds and funds from international financial institutions for $185.5 million were disbursed within all programs. At the expense of these funds, 7130.1 kilometers of drinking water supply networks and 232.9 kilometers of sewerage networks were laid in the country, 859 drinking water supply and sanitation facilities were built and reconstructed. In particular, last year, at the expense of the Asian Development Bank, Kadyrya water treatment facilities with a daily capacity of 100,000 cubic meters were put into operation in Tashkent region, and in the city of Jizzakh – with a capacity of 30,000 m3 per day. At the expense of the World Bank, a treatment plant with a capacity of 100,000 m3 per day was built in the city of Bukhara, and a treatment plant with a capacity of 4,000 m3 was put into operation in the city of Shirin at the expense of the Islamic Development Bank.

To develop domestic drinking water supply and sanitation systems in the regions, 82.8 kilometers of domestic drinking water supply networks were laid at the expense of regional water supply enterprises, 7 water wells were drilled, 121 new pumping equipment was installed.

Overall and current repairs of 1.8 thousand kilometers of drinking water supply networks and 1.8 thousand units of pumping equipment were carried out at the expense of 44.9 billion UZS.

During the reporting period, the main attention was paid to the introduction of energy-saving technologies at domestic and drinking water supply and sanitation facilities. In particular, solar panels with a total capacity of 90.5 kW have been installed in the Republic of Karakalpakstan. To install 39 solar photovoltaic power plants and solar panels in Syrdarya region, an agreement was signed for 220.46 million UZS. Tenders have been announced for the installation of solar panels at 4 water supply facilities in Samarkand region, 3 in Surkhandarya region and 2 in Jizzakh region.

Moreover, as a result of replacing 37 existing pumps with energy-saving ones and 16 pumps of Sirdaryo Suv Taminoti LLC, 77,000 kW of electricity was saved per month.

Last year, 6,570 kW were saved at the Qizil Ravot hydraulic facility in Namangan due to the replacement of 3 pumps with energy-saving ones.

At the event, information was also provided on the statistics of applications received by Uzsuvtaminot JSC and its regional water supply enterprises for 2022. So, last year 28,301 appeals were received. About 90 percent of these appeals were considered and satisfied appropriately.

In addition, to consider and promptly resolve citizens’ appeals, the Call Center operates in the company around the clock with a short number 12-55, through which 144,000 appeals were received and 87 percent of them were resolved positively.

“As a result of the work carried out in 2022, the level of provision of the population of the country with drinking water from centralized drinking water supply systems increased from 69.7 to 74.4 percent, and the level of coverage with sanitation services increased from 17.2 to 18.9 percent”, says the head of Uzsuvtaminot JSC Information Service, Akmal Muradov. – The volume of drinking water sales increased to 1.19 billion m3, the number of available meter consumers increased from 2.42 to 2.83 million, the level of provision with drinking water meters increased to 64.3 percent. The consumer base has increased to 242 thousand.

Despite the large-scale work carried out to further improve the quality of drinking water supply and sanitation services provided to the population, the transformation of the industry in the system still has several problems. One of them is the low level of solvency of consumers and, as a result, an increase in the number of accounts receivable in the country. More precisely, to date, the total receivables of consumers have reached 1.3 trillion UZS. Of these, the debt of physical consumers is 1.1 trillion UZS, and the debt of legal consumers is 208 billion UZS.

To create convenience for consumers, it became possible to make payments electronically, that is, through Payme, Upay and other electronic payment systems, mobile applications of commercial banks, the Personal Account service and the UzWater telegram bot. At the same time, to improve the payment culture of the population and promote the importance of rational use of water, social videos have been broadcast on the monitors of Tashkent Metro and buses.

The authorized persons also dwelled on the main tasks to be implemented in 2023. It was noted that the number of subscribers in the consumer base will be increased from 4.4 to 4.6 million and will be brought to 202 thousand consumers.

The level of provision of consumers with water meters will be increased to 70 percent.

628 new jobs are planned to be created at enterprises subordinate to Uzsuvtaminot JSC.

In 2023, at the expense of funds from international financial institutions for $265.8 million, it is planned to lay a total of more than 400 kilometers of drinking water supply networks and 120 kilometers of sewer networks, the construction of 1 water treatment and 18 water distribution facilities, 2 sewage treatment facilities, 15 sewage pumping stations. This year, 2 treatment facilities with a capacity of 37,000 m3 per day will be put into operation in the cities of Gulistan and Yangiyer.

This year, within the framework of the programs, it is planned for the first time to provide drinking water to 1.1 million residents and thereby increase the level of provision to 77 percent, to increase the level of sewage coverage to 19.5 percent.

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Nilufar Bozorova, photos by Oybek Pardayev, UzA