EBRD and EU boost quality of life for nearly four million Kazakhs

The Aral Sea is vanishing. Fishing communities have relocated with abandoned ships now doting the broad Central Asian steppe akin to a mirage.

What was previously the world’s 4th biggest lake is currently down to 10 % of its past size. It has turned out to be a representation of environmental damage and miss management, a result of wasteful water use and poor irrigation methods used during Soviet times.

Just a handful of water resources remains in southern Kazakhstan, amongst the Syr Darya river. Quite a bit of the infrastructure is derelict, though, this is mainly as a result of poor maintenance, but also partly due to the country’s severe climate which ranges from -50°C in the winter to +50°C in the summer.

It’s even more crucial that water is utilized effectively.

The EBRD and EU are working with the Kazakh government bodies to make sure people have sufficient access to water as well as improving additional municipal services across the country. The first city to take part in the new program is the regional capital Kyzylorda, a few hundred kilometers east of the Aral Sea.

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