Development and Implementation of a Municipal Drinking Water Infrastructure Project in Rural Kyrgyzstan

The small, mountainous nation of the Kyrgyz Republic has been a host to the United States Peace Corps since 1993. In twenty-three years of operation the Peace Corps has primarily focused on Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) with more recent programs focusing on Health Education, Small Business Development and, starting in 2017, Community Youth Development. All of these programs were designed to address problems – weak English education in schools, lack of healthy lifestyles and entrepreneurial knowledge, poor support for underprivileged kids – which were being otherwise neglected and could leverage the Peace Corps’ strengths as a development organization. As a Peace Corps Health Extension Volunteer serving from June 2015 to June 2017, the author participated in the implementation of the Kyzyl Adyr Municipal Drinking Water Expansion Project which saw the installation of 1500 meters of mainline water pipe which extended service to 145 households. This report will describe the context within which the project took place; its conception, design, and implementation; and impact on the residents who were served by the new infrastructure