Uzbekistan: Surkhandarya Water Supply and Sanitation Project

The Surkhandarya Water Supply and Sanitation Project was designed to improve water supply and sanitation services and improve hygiene through the replacement of aging and deteriorating infrastructure, hygiene promotion, and institutional support. Overall, the evaluation assessed the project successful. The project has supported sector reforms and resulted in beneficiaries receiving an improved

level of water supply service by the provincial suvokova (water utility). Some targets, such as sustained performance benchmarking, are yet to be fully accrued, and sanitation efforts need to be given greater attention at design and implementation. This evaluation offers three lessons: (i) Performance benchmarking systems must be underpinned by sustained institutional support; (ii) Results for sanitation components suffer when low investment coincides with low priority; and (iii) Targeted support for sector reforms can yield positive results.