Albany-Tula Alliance Deals With Water Problems

Water Problems In Tula

Tula City Mayor, Sergei Kazakov, made an urgent request of his Albany partners in late 1999 for advice and assistance to the city administration on issues related to the city's water supply and wastewater system. A city of some 600,000 population located about 120 miles south of Moscow, Tula has until now relied upon ground water for its drinking water. As demand for water has increased beyond available ground water, the only obvious source is the nearby Oka River. However the Oka is contaminated with both inadequately treated industrial and municipal effluent from upstream sources, and the parasites, Cryptosporidium and Giardia. It is apparent that the city must undertake major improvements to its water supply and treatment system in order to assure that surface water from the river delivered to its populous is safe and poses no threat to public health.

Through support from the MCPSP program a concerted effort has been made to assist Tula with the issues of water. A representative from Mayor Kazakov's office, Mr. Evgeny Mashinstov, came to Albany in January to discuss the problem, plan activities and participate in a training session organized by the Harvard School of Public Health specifically on drinking water in Russia. In June Dr. David Carpenter, an environmental health physician and current Chair of the Albany - Tula Alliance Board, Dr. Irina Birman, a native Russian and drinking water expert who works in the Bureau of Public Water Supply of the New York State Department of Health, Dr. Leo Hetling, the former principal engineer of the Bureau of Public Water Supply and Mr. Dennis Rapp, a private consultant specializing in public finance and the organization and management of public utility systems, visited Tula. They were briefed by Mayor Kazakov and his staff on the range of problems facing the city with regard to drinking water and wastewater management.

After a thorough inspection tour of all of the city's water supply and wastewater treatment facilities, and an assessment of the city's methods of managing and financing its water supply and wastewater system, the Albany delegation concluded that the city confronts major obstacles in undertaking both the facility improvements needed for its present, aging system as well as those needed to draw and deliver safe drinking water from the Oka River. The current system of water treatment is quite good, but the facilities are old and in great need of repair. But to safely use water from the Oka River will require major new construction and revamping of the whole system of water treatment. There are major obstacles related to the policies and practices employed by the city in managing its water supply and wastewater systems as those policies affect the financing of both current operations and the opportunities to finance needed capital improvements.

For decades, Russia's cities depended upon the allocation of funds from the Federal government to finance all municipal infrastructure, including water supply and wastewater treatment. Rates charged to customers were nominal and subsidized; tariffs did not reflect the cost of service; residential and most small commercial and non-profit users were not metered; revenues from those who did pay their water and sewer bills were covered into the cities' general funds and not earmarked to finance operation or  improvement of the water system. Funds from Moscow to finance municipal infrastructure stopped in 1992, but the municipal policies governing water and sewer service have not. Local government is left without a financially viable, creditworthy structure for borrowing capital to maintain and improve essential and safe water supply service and effective wastewater treatment Russia lacks a municipal bond market.

International agencies like the World Bank, the Soros Foundation, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will only, if at all, finance Russian municipalities' water system capital needs with repayable loans, not grants. But they will only consider loans to those municipalities that demonstrate a capacity to repay those loans.

The delegation recommended to Mayor Kazakov that the city of Tula revise its water-related policies and practices. Specifically they were advised to institute cost-based tariffs, meter all users, earmark revenues to support only water operations and capital financing of the system, and separate the organization that manages the system (the Vodokanal) from the administrative structure of the city government and establish it as a regulated utility. These changes would enable Tula's water system to demonstrate credit-worthiness to financial markets both within and outside Russia. Obviously such dramatic changes will not be easy to implement.

In December of 2000 the Alliance hosted a visit to Albany by Tula's chief water engineer, Viktor Kindistev, and two associates, one of whom (Oksana Izosina) is the editor of the Tula newspaper. The visitors were welcomed by Albany's Mayor Gerald Jennings and given comprehensive briefings and tours of the city's water supply and wastewater treatment management and operating system by city officials and staff during their seven day stay. The events of their visit and what they learned of Albany's water system have been related in weekly articles in the newspaper Tula. What they learned will be helpful to Tula's leadership in addressing the city's water supply issues to the benefit of its citizen's health and economic sustainability. However, there remain many problems, both financial and political, which must be solved before adequate quantities of safe drinking water in Tula can be assured.