Institute for War & Peace Reporting
July 21 2005
Baku Runs Dry
Water runs out in the Azerbaijani capital’s antiquated water system.
By Sevinj Telmangizi in Baku (CRS No. 296, 21-Jul-05)
“I have a huge heap of linen to wash but I don’t have enough water to
fill a teapot,” said 35-year-old housewife Sadagat Mamedova.
Mamedova and her neighbours in the settlement of Binagadi, north of
Baku, all have the same complaint. As Sevil, an elderly neighbour,
explained, the water shortages are getting worse and worse.
“Three years ago, we received water for two hours twice a day,’ said
Sevil. `Since last year, we’ve been getting it only once a day,
according to a timetable, from seven until half past eight in the
evening. However, since the summer started, we’ve had running water
only once every two or even three days. In addition, we are always at
a loss as we never know when it will start running. And the pressure
is so low that it’s impossible to fill the water tank.’
Fizuli Akhundov, a former Baku city official, said that the capacity
of the water system in the capital is out of date. “These lines were
meant for city’s population as it was 20 years ago,’ he said. `The
population was 1.8 million then, but it’s more than three million
now.’
Azerbaijan’s water resources are seven times smaller than Georgia’s
and four times smaller than Armenia’s. The Kura and Araz rivers are
the main sources of drinking water, and almost four million people,
or 40 per cent of Azerbaijan’s population, use water from the former.
However, tests show that water quality in these rivers falls far
below accepted standards, with high levels of pollution from sewage
lines and tributaries flowing into the rivers.
“In the Soviet era, special biological filters were used to clean the
water from the Kura. They were installed on the Kura-Baku water pipe
near the village of Talish in Sabirabad district,’ said Akhundov.
`However, they have not functioned for 20 years now. At present, we
have almost no water cleaning system at all.”
Professor of medicine Adil Geibulla warns that microbes in drinking
water can rapidly cause epidemics of gastroenteric diseases.
“Sometimes, drinking water gets mixed with sewage and industrial
waste,’ he said, adding that `the current pollution of drinking water
is caused not only by bacteria and viruses but also by the
construction work under way in Baku”.
Elnur Gasimov, the leading engineer at the state-owned water company
Azersu, defends the government, pointing out that much of the new
housing constructed in Baku lacks the proper water facilities. “The
25 pumping facilities and water cleaning systems are able to supply
water ony to those settlements and districts that were designed in
the Soviet period,” Gasimov told IWPR.
He added that accidents are frequent because the housing departments
do not repair damaged mains or the branch connections to apartments.
The newest pipes were installed 30 years ago, and are in urgent need
of repair because years of neglect.
According to Gasimov, only 12 or 15 streets in Baku’s prestigious
Sabaili district have continuous running water. Others have their
water rationed according to a schedule.
Surai Gurbanova, 52, who lives in Ataturk avenue in the Narimanov
district, says that about six years ago, her house had water 24 hours
a day, but things started getting worse once multistorey apartment
blocks began springing up all around them. Each time another building
was finished, the water supply was cut further.
“Right now, no water is supplied to the house from one in the
afternoon until six in the evening and from midnight until eight in
the morning,’ said Gurbanova. `We were obliged to install a water
tank because of this problem, even though the cheapest costs 250,000
manats [around 50 US dollars].”
To make things worse, from January 2005 the charge levied on water
for household use was doubled, from 185 to 370 manats (7.7 cents) per
cubic metre. Commercial tariffs also went up.
According to Vusal Gasimly, director of the Institute for Economic
Technologies, the problem is that the official figures for water use
are incorrect, and this is distorting the way policy is shaped.
Azersu data show that the average person in Baku consumes 12 cubic
metres of water a month, or about 400 litres a day. In reality, it is
simply impossible to consume so much water in most of Baku’s
districts, where water is rationed, and hardly ever reaches the upper
floors of multistorey blocks. In Moscow, the average is 200 litres of
water a day.
Gasimly suggested that the true figure for per capita water
consumption in Baku is between 100 and 150 litres. `There is a
difference of 25-30 million dollars between the estimated and real
figures for water consumption,’ he concluded. `It would be very good
if the finance and tax ministries, the audit chamber and the law
enforcement agencies would pay attention to this and find out who is
in Azerbaijan’s water mafia.’
The World Bank has allocated 61 million dollars in loans to the
Azerbaijani government to spend on restoring Baku’s water supply
system, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has
allocated 23 million dollars for the same purpose, while the
government plans to spend 10.9 million dollars of its own money.
Gasimov says these credits come at a high price, and would never have
been needed if the estimates for water use had not been put so high,
“We will have to return these loans with 10-20 per cent interest,
which will be a major blow to Azerbaijan’s economy.’
He says that instead of loans, what is needed to improve water
supplies is `meticulously formulated and audited investment
projects.’
Sevinj Telmangizi is a reporter for Yeni Musavat newspaper in Baku.