DUSHANBE, March 29, 2011, Asia-Plus -- Today, Mr. Yoshihiro Nakayama, Charge d’Affaires, Japan’s Embassy in Dushanbe, Mr. Haibullo Latipov, Chairman of the Committee on Emergency Situations and Civil Defence under the Government of Tajikistan, and Mr. Hiroshi Jigami, Project Formulation Adviser of JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) Tajikistan, and other officials are attending the handover ceremony for the project, Improvement of the Hamadoni Water Supply System – Phase I, according to JICA Tajikistan.

The project includes construction of boreholes, provision of equipment for drilling boreholes, and technical transfer of drilling technique to Tajik engineers.  Three boreholes for safe drinking water have been constructed in Hamadoni district in the framework of the project.

The project supports the program for improvement of safe drinking water (2007 – 2020) in Hamadoni area, and those boreholes are recognized as concrete outputs for achievement of the objectives of the program.  More than 20,000 people in the administrative center of Hamadoni district will get benefit from the project.

The unit for management of the project on supplying potable water to population of Hamadoni district provides a team for operation of drilling boreholes with the support of the state unitary enterprise, South Geophysical Expedition, under the project, and the team will continue drilling activities for the benefits of other areas by its own capacity and Tajik fund.

The project is implemented under grant aid of the Government of Japan.  Japan allocated the budget of JPY 955 million (equivalent to US$11.6 million) for procurement of equipment, provision of boreholes and technical support to the team.