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.
