Department of Public Health, Karaganda Medical University, Gogol Street 40, Karaganda 100008, Kazakhstan.
Division of Water Resources Engineering, Lund University, Box 118, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Feb 26;16(5):688. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16050688.
Rural water supplies have traditionally been overshadowed by urban ones. That must now change, as the Sustainable Development Goals calls for water for all. The objective of the paper is to assess the current access to and the perceived water quality in villages with various types of water supply. The survey was carried out during July⁻December 2017 in four villages in central Kazakhstan. Overall, 1369 randomly selected households were interviewed. The results revealed that even though villagers were provided with tap water, significant numbers used alternative sources. There were three reasons for this situation: residents' doubts regarding the tap water quality; use of other sources out of habit; and availability of cheaper or free sources. Another problem concerned the volume of water consumption, which dropped sharply with decreased quality or inconvenience of sources used by households. Moreover, people gave a poor estimate to the quality and reliability of water from wells, open sources and tankered water. The paper suggests that as well decentralization of water management as monitoring of both water supply and water use are essential measures. There must be a tailor-made approach to each village for achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of providing rural Kazakhstan with safe water.
农村供水传统上一直被城市供水所掩盖。现在必须改变这种状况，因为可持续发展目标呼吁为所有人提供水。本文的目的是评估具有不同供水类型的村庄的当前供水情况和感知水质。该调查于 2017 年 7 月至 12 月在哈萨克斯坦中部的四个村庄进行。总共随机采访了 1369 户家庭。结果表明，尽管村民提供了自来水，但仍有相当数量的人使用替代水源。造成这种情况的原因有三个：居民对自来水水质的怀疑；出于习惯使用其他水源；以及更便宜或免费的水源。另一个问题涉及用水量，随着家庭使用的水源质量下降或不便，用水量急剧下降。此外，人们对水井、露天水源和水车供水的质量和可靠性评价很差。本文建议，水管理的权力下放以及对供水和用水的监测都是必要的措施。必须针对每个村庄采取定制的方法，以实现为哈萨克斯坦农村提供安全用水的可持续发展目标。
