Tajikistan proposes expanding public-private partnership in water sector

Demand for water is growing at an accelerated pace, says Tajikistan first secretary Bahodur Buriev

ISLAMABAD : Tajikistan has proposed expanding public-private partnerships to open up new opportunities to attract additional investments in the water sector and infrastructure.

On Wednesday, the Embassy of Tajikistan First Secretary Bahodur Buriev briefed journalists about the conference on the International Decade for Action Water for Sustainable Development, 2018-2028 held in Tajikistan last month.

He said Tajikistani President Emomali Rahmon had urged more focused efforts on increasing the efficiency of using available financial resources and finding new sources of financing for water-related industries.



In this respect, the expansion of public-private partnership opens new opportunities… in the water sector and infrastructure, Buriev said.

The beginning of the decade is aimed at forming an open platform for strengthening and expanding the regular multilateral water dialogue with a focus on concrete actions, Buriev highlighted.

He said that the president of Pakistan was also the chief guest of the conference and both countries could cooperate in the future to strengthen water infrastructure.



According to the calculations of the World Bank, the two objectives of the 6th Goal of Sustainable Development, namely, universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation, will amount to $114 billion annually.

He said the Tajikistani president had said that joint efforts in this direction had also laid a solid foundation for the development of a new sustainable development agenda, in which water resources are given a central place as a key element of this process.

“More than 800 million and 2.5 billion of the world’s population, respectively, do not have access to safe drinking water and basic services in the field of water sanitation.”

All this indicates that we are still considerably behind in the practical implementation of the set goals and objectives in the field of ensuring access to safe drinking water and sanitation, the first secretary said.



“The demand for water resources in the world is growing at an accelerated pace, which, in turn, causes tense relations between sectors of the economy,” he observed.

Replying to a question, he said that Pakistan and Tajikistan were also working on Casa power import project and Tajikistan would start supplying electricity to Pakistan after two years.

The first secretary said that it was a pilot project and would connect two regions. He said that Afghanistan would also get electricity under this project.