BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 15. Kazakhstan has
allocated 2.7 billion tenge ($5.7 million) from the Special State
Fund to complete two pipeline reconstructions in North Kazakhstan,
serving 53 villages and 38,500 residents.
According to the government of Kazakhstan, the Special State
Fund – which accumulates assets recovered through anti-corruption
proceedings – will finance completion of the Presnov and Sokolov
group water pipelines in North Kazakhstan Region. Both are targeted
for commissioning by end-2026.
The Presnov pipeline will improve water supply to 43 settlements
across the Esil, Mamlyut, and Zhambyl districts, serving 34,500
people. Work to date includes 171 km of main trunk and offtake
pipelines and 46 km of intra-village networks. Pressure regulation
facilities are under construction. The Sokolov pipeline covers 10
villages in Kyzylzhar district, home to over 4,000 people, and
requires 59 km of offtake lines and 77 km of local distribution
networks. The combined project spans 353 km of pipeline
infrastructure.
North Kazakhstan Region operates the country’s most extensive
rural water network at over 3,000 km, supplying 229 villages and
175,000 people. The Special State Fund allocated over 45 billion
tenge ($96 million) to 48 water projects in the region in 2025
alone.
Trend‘s
calculations show this project serves 22–23% of North Kazakhstan
Region’s entire rural water-dependent population at a cost of
approximately $146 per person – compared with $72 per person for
the Aktobe AGRS-type water station funded from the same Special
State Fund. The higher per-capita cost reflects a structural
difference between the two projects: the Aktobe project is a
centralized facility serving many users from a single point, while
the North Kazakhstan Region project involves 353 km of dispersed
pipeline across 53 separate settlements, averaging 9.2 meters of
pipe per person. Rural dispersed networks are inherently more
capital-intensive per beneficiary than centralized
infrastructure.
The SSF’s scale of water investment in Kazakhstan is becoming
significant at the systemic level. Across 2024–2026, 267 water
projects worth 226.5 billion tenge ($483 million) have been
approved – equivalent to more than half the annual budget of some
Central Asian utilities. The 2025 North Kazakhstan Region
allocation alone of 45 billion tenge ($96 million) represents more
than 16 times the current project’s budget, suggesting a sustained
multi-year capital injection into a region whose water
infrastructure dates primarily from the Soviet era.
The Presnov and Sokolov pipelines appear to be among the final
stages of a rehabilitation wave: 171 km of Presnov’s pipelines are
already laid, indicating the project is in late-stage completion
rather than starting from scratch. The 2.7 billion tenge ($5.7
million) from the Special State Fund is a completion payment for
infrastructure already partially in place. For the 38,500 residents
covered, the practical impact is reliability and water quality. The
reconstruction reduces distribution losses and restores adequate
pressure to all 53 settlements.
