If you're in the Kyrgyz capital this week, don't be caught short: a large slice of Bishkek will have no running water on Thursday, October 23. The city's water utility, Bishkekvodokanal, is shutting off supply from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. while crews repair and maintain a water pipeline with a diameter of 400 millimetres — a main line, hence the lengthy outage.

The affected zone sits within an area bounded by Ayni Street, Dzhunusaliev Street, Gagarin Street, Abdraimov Street and Chingiz Aitmatov Avenue. It covers residential blocks as well as schools, kindergartens and medical facilities, so it's a fairly busy, central part of the city rather than a quiet backwater.

For locals, the advice from the utility is simple: store drinking water in advance. For travellers, it's worth the same preparation, plus a little extra planning. Hotel guests inside the outage zone should expect taps, showers and toilets to be out of action for up to twelve hours — worth confirming with your accommodation whether it has a storage tank or backup supply. Many Soviet-era apartment blocks and smaller guesthouses don't hold much in reserve.

A few practical workarounds: stock up on bottled water the night before (corner shops and supermarkets are plentiful in Bishkek), plan your morning shower accordingly, and pick a café or restaurant outside the zone for meals and bathroom breaks if you're staying within it. City authorities also push outage alerts through the My City mobile app, which can be handy if you want real-time updates on when the water is actually back — repair works like this sometimes run long.

Is this a reason to change your travel plans? Not really. A scheduled twelve-hour cut-off is routine maintenance in a city where infrastructure upgrades are ongoing, and it's a single day. But it's a good reminder that in Bishkek — and Central Asian capitals more broadly — it pays to keep a bottle or two of water in your room and to check local announcements during your stay. Travellers heading onward to Issyk-Kul or the mountains should also make sure any day trips on October 23 start with water already in the bag, since shops inside the affected streets may see runs on supplies.

The key date for your diary: October 23, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., local time. If your accommodation falls within the Ayni–Dzhunusaliev–Gagarin–Abdraimov–Aitmatov perimeter, treat it as a dry day and plan around it.

Story first reported by 24.kg.