21 September, Minsk /Olga Belyavskaya - BELTA/. All Belarusian agro-towns will be provided with quality drinking water by 2016. This was announced today by the Minister of Housing and Communal Services, Vladimir Belokhvostov, at a meeting of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers, where the draft state program "Clean Water" for 2011-2015 was considered, according to a BELTA correspondent.
"By 2016, the population of not only all regional and district centers, cities of regional subordination and urban-type settlements, but also all agro-towns will be 100% provided with centralized water supply and quality drinking water," the minister said. He specified that about 1.1 million people live in agro-towns. Vladimir Belokhvostov also recalled that the instruction to provide agro-towns with quality drinking water was given by the head of state in 2007 at a republican meeting in Brest.
Improving the reliability of water supply and sewerage systems by replacing water and sewage networks requiring replacement will reduce water losses by 3-4%, which amounts to 25 million cubic meters per year. This direction is envisaged by Directive No. 3.
Analyzing the prospects for improving the centralized water supply system for the rural population, Vladimir Belokhvostov noted that to ensure the normative quality of water from centralized water supply systems for more than 1 million people living in agro-towns, it is necessary to build 768 iron removal plants, about 2 thousand km of water supply networks and 476 artesian wells. This will require Br779 billion. In general, the minister emphasized that the state program "Clean Water" for 2011-2015 will have a predominantly rural focus.-0-
BELTA