RU
April 2024 — September 2024
Urban Water: Sustainability, Equity, Future
Kazakhstan

Urban Forum Kazakhstan
The Public Foundation “Urban Forum Kazakhstan” in partnership with the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Representative Office in Central Asia implements a project “Urban Water: Sustainability, Equity, Future”. The project aims to discuss water resources and water policy issues at the level of Kazakhstan's largest city - Almaty.
Overall objective:
In the face of climate change and diminishing water resources in Kazakhstan, promote sustainable water saving practices in urban areas by means of public awareness, public debate and multidisciplinary, cross-border professional cooperation.

Project objectives:

  • Raise public awareness of the challenges of water scarcity through a social media campaign to educate the public and promote a sense of urgency and collective responsibility for sustainable water management practices.
    1
  • Capacity building of opinion leaders, journalists and social media influencers to increase their knowledge of water scarcity, climate change and water management in Almaty and encourage their engagement in advocacy.
    2
  • Encourage innovation and interaction between young architects and climate scientists to promote interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge exchange to find solutions to rainwater management problems in the city of Almaty.
    3

The main activities of the project are:

  • An Information campaign

    (June 2024), assuming that the results are 6 social media publications, including 1 or 2 animated publications (CGI or stop-motion), 1 video documentary with expert interviews, followed by 4+ short videos in social media, and 1 landing page on urbanforum.kz website with key facts.

  • An One-day Seminar on “How to understand water scarcity and talk about it”

    (June 2024) with participation of 15th opinion leaders, social media figures and mass media representatives.

  • A Three-day Design Lab “Slow Water: Modern sustainable ways to manage rainwater (a case study of Almaty drainage aryqs)”

    (July, 2024) with participation of 15th young architects, urban planners, designers and water-related specialists.
Almaty, like other cities around the world, faces challenges related to access to water, exacerbated by the effects of climate change, water quality issues, water conservation and the state of urban water infrastructure.
On 16-18 July 2024, a three-day design lab on "Sustainable ways to manage rainwater" was held. The keynote speaker was Lina Graf (Freiburg, Germany), Managing Director of regioWasser e.V., an expert in water and environmental protection. Lina shared her knowledge and experience of rainwater management in her home town. Thanks to her activities and those of her colleagues and concerned citizens, Freiburg is developing as a sponge city, where various practices are implemented, such as green roofs, infiltration trenches, partial unsealing, green car parks, water sprayers, drinking fountains, underground cisterns, etc.

Participants of the Design Lab - young Kazakhstani urbanists, designers, architects, inspired by the sponge city practices, developed two projects focusing on the organization of rain parks in specific districts of Almaty.