Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Starting from 15 March 2020, during quarantine introduced in our country for the fight against coronavirus and its prevention, water supply enterprises similar to all socially significant enterprises and organizations of the republic, are switching to an enhanced mode of operation.

Due to these measures, all consumers of our country, including the population, are uninterruptedly supplied with drinking water.

The government also issued relevant instructions to the responsible ministries and departments on not charging penalties for late payments for the provision of drinking and wastewater services not to file lawsuits in courts for consumer debtors and to prevent disconnection from networks.

The quarantine introduced in our country led to the temporary cessation of activities of most enterprises, organizations and budgetary institutions and the introduction of a procedure for self-isolation of the population in their homes - which, in turn, led to a decrease in the water consumption of legal organizations and an increase in the population’s demand for drinking water.

(For reference: the average daily income in the country for the provision of drinking and wastewater services until the day of quarantine announcement is 3.1 billion sums, today this figure has decreased by 10 times and amounted to 0.3 billion sums.)

Such cases, in turn, have a negative impact on the financially sustainable activities of water supply enterprises in the quarantine period, including the remuneration of employees, the purchase of chemicals necessary for water treatment, the repayment of loans raised under the guarantee of the government, payments to budgetary and state trust funds, electricity and the necessary materials to eliminate emergencies., This leads to untimely and partial implementation of primary payments related to the acquisition of lubricants.

In this regard, in order to prevent the deterioration of the financial condition of water supply enterprises under quarantine conditions, to mitigate the consequences of the epidemic, at the initiative of the Ministry of finance of the Republic of Uzbekistan, together with the Ministry of housing and public utilities, the amount of funds necessary for payment to water supply enterprises of the first degree was studied, appropriate proposals were submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers on state financial support of water supply sector in the duration of the quarantine.

In accordance with the proposals of the Ministry of finance and the Ministry of housing and public utilities of the Republic of Uzbekistan a total of 61.4 billion sums were allocated from the funds of the Anti-Crisis Fund for financial support of water supply enterprises on the basis of a special order of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The finances are allocated in the form of an interest-free loan to cover expenses of the first degree (chemicals, fuels and lubricants), wages and equivalent payments of water supply enterprises.

Considering that under the conditions of quarantine declared in our country, uninterrupted provision of high-quality drinking and wastewater services to the population is an urgent issue, as a result of such attention paid by the state to the public utilities sector, in particular, drinking water supply services, uninterrupted provision of drinking water supply services will be ensured, guaranteed by the state.