Kazakhstan has one of the highest rates of daily water consumption in the world, QazMonitor reports with reference to Finprom.kz.
According to statistics published by Worldometers, Kazakhstan ranked 11th biggest water consumer with a daily level of water use per capita reaching 3.5 thousand liters.
Central Asian countries in general lead the charts as Turkmenistan topped the world ranking with a whopping 16.3 thousand liters of daily water usage per capita.
Uzbekistan ranked 4th with 4.8 thousand liters, followed by Tajikistan in 5th place with 4.5 thousand liters, and the Kyrgyz Republic in 6th place with 4.3 thousand liters per capita daily.
“For comparison: in neighboring Russia, the figure is only 1.3 thousand liters, 1.2 thousand liters in Georgia, 604 liters in Ukraine, and only 348 liters in the UK,” reads the report on the website.
The lowest rates among 179 countries surveyed were in African countries: in particular, the Democratic Republic of Congo took last place with only 34 liters per capita.
The reason for high water consumption in the Central Asian region could be the extremely low water tariffs, says the report.
Finprom Analysts compared tariffs of the three largest Kazakh cities – Astana, Almaty, and Shymkent – with the 2021 Water Price Index report on the cost of cold water provided by travel site Holidu. The report compared water tariffs in 120 large cities among 63 countries.
In a comparison, Shymkent, Astana, and Almaty would take 117th, 118th, and 119th place out of 123 countries with 0.19, 0.11, and 0.1 euros per cubic meter of water, respectively.
That is to say, tap water in Kazakhstan is one of the cheapest in the world.
This implies that the cheaper the water bills, the more frivolous people are with water usage. But the attitude and habits of Kazakh citizens toward water conservation still remain in question.