At the government session chaired by Prime Minister Askar Mamin, access to water supply services in rural areas was discussed.

Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development Beibut Atamkulov, Minister of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources Serikkali Brekeshev, Akim of Kostanay region Arkhimed Mukhambetov, Akim of Mangystau region Nurlan Nogayev presented their reports.

The Prime Minister noted that the Government has been tasked with providing 100% of the population with clean drinking water by the end of 2025. Its solution is envisaged in the program of the Nur Otan party and in the framework of the adopted national project for the development of regions.

At the end of this year, the provision of drinking water will be 91.8% in villages and 98% in cities. Work will continue to provide high-quality drinking water to the remaining 1,922 rural settlements.

The Head of Government instructed the regions with the lowest percentage of drinking water supply, in particular, Kostanay (64.7%), East Kazakhstan (81.4%), North Kazakhstan (82.1%) and Zhambyl (82.2%) regions, next year to bring the indicators to the average republican level. At the same time, all stages of project implementation (exploration work, development of design and estimate documentation) for water supply within settlements should be synchronized with plans for building the infrastructure of group water pipelines.

Akimats were told about the need to intensify work on the timely development of design and estimate documentation for water supply to villages.

The Prime Minister stressed the importance of increasing the level of automation and introducing innovative technologies in the water supply industry. As an example for scaling up in all regions, Mamin cited the cities of Shymkent and Nur-Sultan, where, due to the automation of production processes and the installation of metering devices, significant consumer funds have been saved, water consumption and maintenance costs have been reduced.

The Head of Government instructed the central state and local executive bodies to take all the necessary measures to provide rural settlements with drinking water and achieve the planned targets for the current year.

The Ministry of National Economy, together with the ministries of industry, ecology and regional akimats, was instructed to work out the issues of improving the tariff policy for water, taking into account the need for investment costs, incl. for the implementation of digital technologies for water use.

The Ministry of Industry, together with the regional akims, was instructed to take measures to strengthen control over the construction of water supply facilities in villages and update the Interactive map of water supply to settlements with the inclusion of feedback functions with consumers.