Pipeline Failure and Replacement in Kazakhstan

Many cities in the Former Soviet Union have made extensive use of steel pipe for water, sewer and district heating services. During the Soviet era bare steel pipe was often delivered to construction sites, despite engineering designs and Soviet standards that called for lined and coated pipe. Local utilities had two choices - reject the pipe and do without needed replacements and additions, or use the pipe and accept the inevitable short service lives. In one of those cities - Atyrau, Kazakhstan - the average life of water distribution pipe was five years. Water losses were 50 percent. The average lives of raw water supply lines, steel sewer lines, and district heating lines were also on the order of 6 to 10 years. Piping systems were failing throughout the city. Customers either could not or would not pay for service. (Official unemployment exceeded 30 percent.) There was no money to replace the failing pipes. And, at the rate pipes were failing, the water and sewerage utilities were in a death spiral. Working with USAID, USTDA, the World Bank, and the Government of Kazakhstan, the author introduced HDPE pipe to Kazakhstan, helped obtain funding, introduced local government officials to international funding mechanisms, competitive bidding and transparency requirements, and led an American-Kazakhstani engineering team in the design of 27,540 meters (90,360 feet) of HDPE water and sewer lines ranging from 80 millimeters (3.15 inches) to 800 millimeters (31.5 inches) in diameter. The project led to the successful establishment of an HDPE pipe manufacturing facility in Atyrau and acceptance of HDPE pipe as a viable material in Kazakhstan.