CAS Strives for Helping Central Asia’s Rural Area for Clean Water

Water sustains almost all known life forms on the earth. For human beings, safe clean water is essential though men obtain no calories or organic nutrients from water. This makes safe and clean drinking water focus of attention across the world, especially in the Central Asia where fresh water is inadequate.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) is now extend its helping hand to people in the Central Asia to get access to safe clean drinking water, those living in the rural areas in particular.

A team of scientists from the CAS Research Center for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia docked with the water supply department of the Kyrgyz Republic last week for further cooperation details on drinking water treatment project in the country’s rural areas.

This is a project initiated early last year. Water quality sampling and assay determination on the country’s surface water have been completed, with the cooperation of the Kyrgyz National Bureau of Hydrology and Meteorology.

“Site selection is now underway for the installation and application of the drinking water treatment facilities,” said LI Yaoming, director of the CAS Research Center for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia (Bishkek).

Water covers 71% of the Earth's surface area. However, only 2.5% is freshwater with less than 0.3% in rivers, lakes, and the atmosphere. Much of the surface fresh water and ground water is unsuitable for drinking without some form of purification because of the presence of chemical or biological contaminants.

Things are even challenging for those countries in Central Asia.

China has seen ripe technology in drinking water treatment in recent years. But application in Kyrgyzstan will need further technology integration, testing and verification judging by local practical situation, according to REN Yiwei, president of China’s Zhongling Environmental Protection Industrial Technology Research Institute.

Kyrgyzstan has rich water resources but is still facing problems on safe drinking water for its population, with rural areas in particular. The country has more than 1,800 villages, among them, 545 have centralized safe water supply.

Adoption of the Chinese technology will “be of great help” for solving the problems of safe drinking water in remote rural areas in Kyrgyzstan, said Toktoshev Askarbek, chief of the country’s water supply department.