Osh municipal company “Oshgorvodokanal” is a company with a profit and loss responsibility that belongs and reports to the Municipality of Osh.
History of piped water supply in Osh
Municipally managed drinking water supply in Osh that met requirements of the state standards dates back to 1952.
At the beginning, underground water was used for drinking, water was supplied to users from springs in the area of the current pump station 5, in Yugo-Vostock district, by gravity. Supplies of drinking water volumes grew mainly thanks to bore-hole drilling and underground water supply, yet, there has always been water shortage.
Due to underground water shortage is was decided to use raw water from the Ak-Buura river for processing it into drinking quality water. The Ak-Buura river has a watershed area of 2,530 km², its average annual water runoff is 690 million m³.
The centralized sewage system that included wastewater treatment was launched in Osh in 1965 after commissioning of the Osh Cotton Integrated Plant by the Ministry of Light Industry. The first treatment wetland (sewage treatment facilities) with a production capacity of 20 thousand m3 per day was built in a northern suburb of the city.
In 1977, the second treatment wetland with a production capacity of 80,000 m3 per day was built. The total combined capacity of the two facilities was 100 thousand m3 per day, the cleaning principle used was complete biological treatment of sewage and discharge of effluents into the Ak-Buura river. Currently only the second sewage treatment facility is operated, its maximum capacity is 80,000 m3 sewage treatment per day.
In 1978, the first stage of the water purification plant "Ozgor" was built. Through the dam in the riverhead water enters the water purification plant located in the village of Ozgor, which gave the name of the station. The first stage of the plant provided Osh with 50 thousand m³ of drinking water.
In 1991, the second stage of the wastewater purification plant "Ozgor" was commissioned, it supplied 130 thousand m3 of drinking water per day to Osh.
With the beginning of the construction of the textile plant in Osh, the Mady water intake was constructed, which takes in water from underground springs, 2 waterways were built with steel pipes with a diameter of 426 mm. Drainage water intake of Mady was transferred into ownership of Gorvodokanal in 1996.
Upon acquisition of independence by Kyrgyzstan many projects failed to be implemented. Construction of water supply and sewerage facilities has dramatically decreased. Only water pipelines of short length and small pipe diameter were constructed. Efforts were taken to finalise and commission the water pipes and sewerage projects that were launched into construction before break-up of the Soviet Union and to implement water pipelines connections to apartment houses.
Industrial enterprises, which have become joint-stock companies, abandoned their water supply and sewerage systems. As a result, the Oshgorvodokanal was forced to take title of those ramshackle assets and service them.
In 2008 - 2012 with the financing of the World Bank, a project to supply piped water to remote newly erected residential buildings was implemented, those residential buildings are located in the Kalinin residential area, "Dostuk" residential area and Turan district (Motocross). The World Bank project financed also reconstruction of pumping stations 4 and 5.
The World Bank project "Urban Infrastructure of Bishkek and Osh" was aimed at improving the infrastructure of areas with Soviet high-rise buildings, where lack of access to basic infrastructure and poor housing conditions became the main factor of poverty for a large part of the population. That project included construction and rehabilitation of water supply and sanitation systems.
The "Water Supply and Sewerage Systems in Osh and Jalal-Abad, and Bazar-Korgon" project of the Asian Development Bank, which provided emergency assistance in rehabilitation and reconstruction, was launched in 2012. Its subproject "Improving the Water Supply System in Osh" included:
(I) construction of an infiltration gallery at the water intake "Plotina"; construction of a new water pipeline from the new infiltration gallery to the water purification plant "Ozgor"; rehabilitation of chlorination equipment at "Ozgor";
(II) rehabilitation of a water tank with a capacity of 6,000 m3 located in the vicinity of the Brick Plant.
The project of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development began in 2012. Its implementation is divided into two phases, the first phase ended in 2016. The second phase began in the autumn of 2017 and will continue until the end of 2019. The following have already been carried out within the framework of the project:
During phase II of the project it is planned to carry out the following:
Water Supply in Osh
The city of Osh is supplied with drinking water by the water purification plant "Ozgor", with "Mady" water intake and two pumping stations, i.e. pumping stations 7 and 5.
70 percent of the residents of Osh, namely those are residents of such districts as Amir Temur, the city center, Turan, Japalak, Manas Ata, Kurmanjan-Datka, Sulaiman-Too, Kerme-Too, Dostuk, Ak Buura and Alymbek-Datka, - are supplied with drinking water from the Ak-Buura River upon purification at the "Ozgor" station.
In 2016, the water intake "Plotina" was commissioned, the water from that intake is also purified at "Ozgor".
Water is purified in accordance with the drinking water quality standards at the water purification plant, such processes as chemical cleaning, disinfection, sedimentation and filtration are carried out there.
Water disinfection is a package of measures undertaken to purify water from microorganisms (viruses, bacteria, cysts, etc.).
"Ozgor" water purification plant can condition up to 180 thousand m3 of drinking water per day. Drinking water quality meets the requirements of the Rules of Communal Water Supply and Sanitation of the Kyrgyz Republic.
Residents of northern districts of the city such as the Manas-Ata, Kurmanjan-Datka, the Kalinin and Dostuk residential area, including the suburban villages of the Karasu district, are supplied drinking water from underground sources, namely, by the Mady water intake and the pumping stations 7 and 5.
As a result, the water treatment plant "Ozgor" delivers 180 thousand m³ of drinking water per day. In addition to the "Ozgor" purification plant drinking water in Osh is supplied by:
The length of the water supply network has reached 520 km. The water supply networks are divided into 10 water supply zones: the Amir Temur zone, the city centre, Turan, Zhapalak, the Manas-Ata district, Kurmanjan-Datka, Sulaiman-Too, Kerme-Too, Dostuk, Ak Buura, Alymbek-Datka districts.
The main material of the pipelines is steel, reinforced concrete, cast iron, asbestos, as well as polyethylene.
Pipes of various diameters are used in the water supply network. Unfortunately, there are a lot of old and unreliable pipes in the water supply network, the service life of which has expired, due to which the water losses in the network reach 70%.
There are 16 pumping stations of one or two heights of rise in operation. Due to the city's relief 40% of all water is supplied to the city by pumps, while the other 60% of water is supplied by gravity. Pumps are designed to provide water to the multistorey apartment buildings. In Osh there are 18 reservoirs for storage of clean water. The average daily water supply to the population is 43,740 m3, budget organizations are supplied with 38,815 m3, whereas industrial and commercial organizations are supplied with 64,399 m3 of piped drinking water.
In the city, 37.9 thousand people use street hand pump water wells, 37.7 thousand people use hand pump water well in their yards, and 47.8 thousand people use tap water in well-equipped houses.
1,315 organizations and enterprises of them 189 industrial enterprises, 269 budget organizations and 857 commercial structures are the company's clients.
Sewerage Network
The Osh sewerage network is a complex yet obsolete system of pipelines, collectors, canals and buildings, designed to receive, collect and transfer sewage to sewage treatment facilities. The construction of a centralized sewerage system with sewage treatment was started in 1965, the system is comprised of two generations. The first network of treatment facilities and sewerage with the capacity of 20 thousand m3 per day of wastewater processing is not in operation currently. The second network of treatment facilities was built in 1977 with a capacity of 80 thousand m3 sewage per day. Both treatment facilities networks share the same treatment principle, namely, complete biological treatment of sewage and discharge of treated effluents into the Ak-Buura river. Currently, only the second complex of treatment facilities is operated.
Wastewater networks in the city are made of reinforced concrete, cast-iron, asbestos-cement and ceramic pipes. Pipelines were built in the period from 1960 to 1990. The sewerage facilities of the wastewater treatment plants are outdated and obsolete. Sewage pipelines have considerable depreciation of their guideline life and require replacement of about 50% of the total length. Buildings require major rehabilitation. The degree of wastewater treatment barely reaches 65-70 per cent as some technological elements in the treatment process are lacking. It is necessary to replace a lot of steelworks, procure turbocompressors, restore biological ponds.
The city does not have storm water drainage system, in many places there is no irrigation network either. Urban runoff enters the sewerage network, the capacity of which does not allow the reception of such run-off, due to which network blocks are often formed.
Although the design capacity of sewerage networks is 100 thousand m3 of sewage per day, the average daily household sewage treatment is 32.6 thousand m3, budget organizations discharge 27.3 thousand m3 per day, and industrial and commercial enterprises discharge 17 thousand m3 per day, which totals 76.9 thousand m3 per day.
Improved piped sanitation services are used in the city by more than 48 thousand people, 269 budget organizations and 600 commercial structures.
The "Oshghorvodokanal" company manages rehabilitation of the facilities of the first generation of the wastewater treatment facilities. Rehabilitation and commissioning of the first generation will allow: