BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. National projects and plans for the development of territories and sectors of Kazakhstan’s economy are developed without taking into account the availability and condition of water resources, the country’s Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov said in his response to an MP’s question, Trend reports citing the goverment.
"The draft of the new Water Code of Kazakhstan will revise approaches to water resources management, requirements for the development of schemes for the integrated use and protection of water resources. It’s also planned that the schemes will be equated with the documents of the state planning system," Smailov noted.
He reminded that since 2017, projects for the reconstruction of water management and irrigation and drainage systems have been implemented, financed by loans from the Islamic Development Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The prime minister also commented on the existing tariffs for water supply services.
"In accordance with the application filed in 2018 for approval of the maximum level of the tariff and the tariff estimate for the water supply service, the planned average weighted tariff in the first year of the implementation of the tariff estimate amounted to 2.72 tenge or 0.6 cents (excluding VAT), which fully included the costs of servicing loans,” he explained. “However, the tariff was approved in the amount of 1.036 tenge or 0.24 cents (excluding VAT). Following the implementation of the tariff estimate for 2019, the “Kazvodkhoz” republican state enterprise (RSE) of the Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources suffered a loss of 1.3 billion tenge ($3 million).”
According to Smailov, a single tariff for irrigation water was formed and approved in accordance with the current antimonopoly legislation of Kazakhstan, which provides for differentiation by consumer groups depending on the method of water supply.
"On April 23, 2021, due to the introduction of additional measures into the investment program for water supply services through the canals of "Kazvodkhoz" RSE, average selling tariffs were approved. The approved tariff envisages an increase in costs for strategic goods (electricity, coal, fuel and lubricants), wages of line workers (hydraulic engineers, hydraulic technicians, water supply regulators, and others) based on the data of 2020, and the costs for the implementation of the investment program," he added.