TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, November 3. Uzbekistan’s Uzsuvtaminot JSC, responsible for water supply, sewerage, and rational use of drinking water in the country, will introduce updated water and sanitation service tariffs in the region of Samarkand starting on November 16, Trend reports.
New tariffs for cold water will now be fixed at the following:
for the population — 2,500 soums per cubic meter (20 cents)
for budget organizations — 5,700 soums per cubic meter (47 cents)
for wholesale consumers — 5,700 soums per cubic meter (47 cents)
Tariffs for sewerage services:
for the population — 1,600 soums per cubic meter (13 cents)
for budget organizations — 4,300 soums per cubic meter (35 cents)
for wholesale consumers — 4,300 soums per cubic meter (35 cents)
"The increase in tariffs is related to the payment of employee salaries and tax payments, payment for electricity, repayment of loans, and the need for funds for repairs and modernization of the system," Uzsuvtaminot's report says.
According to the Uzsuvtaminot, over the past five years, the level of centralized drinking water supply in the Samarkand region has increased from 54.6 percent to 73.1 percent, while the sewerage services’ range has expanded from 9.8 percent to 18.7 percent.
In the next five years, these figures are planned to increase to 92.5 percent and 45.1 percent, respectively.
Earlier this month, Uzbekistan expressed its readiness to develop a national water conservation program as part of its development strategy.
In addition, Uzbekistan is implementing full-scale measures to improve the efficiency of water use in the country. Over the past 7 years, water-saving technologies have been implemented on an area of more than 1 million hectares, which is about a quarter of all irrigated land in the country.