By Nikola Marinko · EIA Site Manager, WSS Osh, Kyrgyzstan, 2015-2016 · Updated October 2026 · 15 min read

I came to Osh for the water, not the Silk Road. From June 2015 to June 2016 I was EIA Site Manager for Ludwig Pfeiffer on WSS Osh, a $10M ADB-financed reconstruction of the water supply for Kyrgyzstan's second city, which was losing around forty percent of its drinking water to leaks. The work ran from a 300-metre infiltration gallery in the bed of the Ak-Buura to twin 6,000 m³ reservoirs and 4.7 km of transmission main. A year on one site turns a city into home.

The story is the Osh I found once the working day ended. The Osh Nuru Hotel across from our office, Park Meerim with its Lenin statue, Park Toktogul and the brutalist White House. Borsok Cafe, Restaurant Izyum with live music, and a pizzeria near the Ryspay Abdykadyrov Bridge. Sulaiman-Too, Kyrgyzstan's first UNESCO World Heritage Site, with a mosque first built in 1510 and raised again in 2012, and a cave museum of 33,000 artifacts. Then Jayma Bazaar and its unwritten rules, off-road days in the Alay range, Victory Day on 9 May, and a first bowl of kymyz in a yurt.

The practical advice holds up: go to Sulaiman-Too at twilight when the caves empty, reach the bazaar around 11 AM, never refuse tea, and pack a phrasebook and something for your stomach.

WSS Osh project · Jalal-Abad province · Issyk-Kul · WWTP Enesai project · Field stories

Osh, Kyrgyzstan - A Year in the 3,000-Year-Old Silk Road City

FIELD STORY