DUSAHNBE, July 17, Asia-Plus - A program for enhancement of provision of Tajikistan ’s population with safe drinking water in 2007-2020 will have been worked out by August 1 of this year, Minister of land Reclamation and Water Resources, Abduqohir Nazirov, remarked at a briefing in Dushanbe on July 17.  

According to him, for the purpose of raising the program’s efficiency a working group set up for drafting this program accepts offers from all interested ministries and organizations as well as from water users themselves.  “All these proposals will be taken into consideration on drafting the program,” the minister said.  

“I hope the program, which is scheduled to be launched next year, will have been approved by the government already by October,” said Mr. Nazirov, “Under this document it is supposed to bring a number of rural population having access to safe drinking water up to 70%-80%.” 

According to official figures, at present 43 percent of the rural population and 93 percent of the urban population in Tajikistan have access to safe drinking water.  Of a total population of Tajikistan (some 6, 959,000 people), 72 percent lives in the rural area.