Central Asia Water Supply and Sanitation (WSS) Capacity Development Program for Scaling Up Access, Resilience and Innovation

Project Summary:

The grant aims to strengthen service delivery capacity in the water and sanitation sector across Central Asia — primarily the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan — with a focus on climate resilience, innovation, and digitalization. It addresses skill shortages, financial inefficiencies, and infrastructure gaps by drawing on expertise from Korean water utilities.

It is organized around three activities:

• The largest component, Hackathons and Internships for Young Professionals, supports regional innovation through hackathons to identify scalable WSS solutions and funds immersive internships for up to 30 young professionals at Korean water utilities.
• The second component, CA Water Utilities Learning Platform (CAWULP), establishes a regional knowledge-sharing platform including manuals, open courses, and a regional conference.
• The third, Private Sector Partnerships, finances exchange visits and study tours between private and public water utilities to build confidence in green technologies.