A STEP AWAY FROM DISASTER

The threat of an accident occurring at Azerbaijan's Sarsang reservoir in Nagornyy Karabakh, which has been occupied by Armenia, is becoming more and more likely with every passing year. The obvious reluctance and even simple lack of funds to carry out any kind of repair and restoration work on this facility, has led to it getting into a state of almost complete disrepair. In the event of even the slightest accident, hundreds of thousands of inhabitants in the surrounding districts may find themselves under water. But the occupying forces are not worried about that. Moreover, from time to time, threats to blow up the dam are heard from the Armenian side. The only thing that inspires hope is that last year the Council of Europe agreed to appoint someone to compile a report on this problem, after which some progress might be made regarding this issue. 

It is noteworthy that back on 6 April 2014 a decision was adopted by the Executive Committee of the Council of Europe to consider a draft resolution on the Sarsang reservoir submitted by Elxan Suleymanov, a deputy of the Milli Maclis, and signed by deputies from 14 European countries. Owing the Armenian lobby's opposition to these draft resolutions on the Sarsang reservoir and refutation of the threat it poses to the inhabitants of the adjacent districts, the resolutions have twice failed to get past this stage. But this time round, the Executive Committee has decided to discuss the document at the PACE [Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe] public affairs, health and sustainable development committee and has already appointed Melissa Markowitz, a deputy from Bosnia and Hercegovina, to compile a report on the subject.

This report will be the first to touch upon the serious humanitarian, economic, environmental and biological threat the more than 400,000 people in the civilian population living in the districts of Azerbaijan along the border (Agcabadi, Agdam, Barda, Goranboy, Tartar and Yevlax) have had to face, owing to the shortage of water supplied by the Sarsang reservoir which has been under occupation for 25 years now.

 Last month Melissa Markowitz visited Azerbaijan and had a number of meetings, among them with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, who noted that the Sarsang reservoir has become the source of a humanitarian, environmental and technogenic catastrophe. "The delay in coming to a peaceful solution to the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagornyy Karabakh conflict is not only having a detrimental effect on the socio-economic development in this region, but is having a negative impact on the environmental situation in the republic's districts along the border," E. Mammadyarov said.

M. Markowitz reported that the report will focus on the problems suffered by the local population stemming from the Sarsang reservoir and the river Tartar. What problems are we talking about? First and foremost, we would like to note that, at the present time, the Sarsang dam is not only the highest in Nagornyy Karabakh, but in the whole of Europe. Before the occupation the reservoir used to irrigate as much as 100,000 ha of land situated in six districts of Azerbaijan (Tartar, Barda, Agdam, Goranboy, Yevlax and Agcabadi). Today it has become a kind of sword of Damocles in the hands of the terrorist.

In the event of an accident, which is quite probable, taking into account the fact that no repair work has been carried out here for 25 years now, it could become the cause of an environmental catastrophe, which would affect hundreds of thousands of inhabitants in the region. Besides this, the unfair distribution of the water resources of the Sarsang reservoir has led to the soil becoming more saline, to desertification and a drop in the output of the harvests.

Judging by the studies conducted within the framework of the project of Azerbaijan's Association for Civil Development, the water shortage is having a serious effect on the farms in the adjoining districts. The studies have also shown that the harmful substances coming from the reservoir are have a detrimental effect on people's health and causing outbreaks of infectious diseases. This is because the facility is not being properly monitored and, to be more exact, is controlled by terrorists, which makes monitoring of it impossible and does not allow environmental conservation checks to be carried out.

The occupation of the lands and the blockade of the Sarsang reservoir has already had a serious impact on the demographic situation in the region. The shortage of water suitable for agriculture and drinking has become an economic, social and even psychological problem for the local inhabitants. "In winter the aggressor country releases water from the Sarsang reservoir, flooding the land and destroying the roads, but in summer, when people and agriculture are particularly in need of water, the water supply is cut off. As a result of this, in the years of occupation, Azerbaijan's agriculture has suffered serious losses, including lack of irrigation in the cultivated areas, destruction of the vegetation, and irreversible processes have taken place in the biological structure of the lands and finally a disturbing environmental situation can be observed in the region, namely that biological diversity is seriously under threat," Elxan Suleymanov, member of Azerbaijan's delegation to the PACE, noted.

Today a serious shortage of clean water can be observed in this region, which the villagers are trying to overcome by drilling artesian wells. But the water from these wells is having a negative effect on yields and is causing increasingly rapid salinization of the soil.

Besides this, in the event of a force majeure situation occurring at the reservoir, not only will mediaeval monuments be destroyed, but also burial mounds from the pre-Christian era.

Incidentally, last year, after the visit to the border zones by American co-chairman of the Minsk OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe), James B. Warlick, placed a photograph on his Twitter page accompanied by the following caption: "This is the Sarsang reservoir. If both parties were able to use it, this would be a positive step." To which the Azerbaijani side immediately responded by stating that there could be no question of any kind of co-operation with the invaders, even if there was a risk of a possible disaster.

Therefore, the international mediators would help the local inhabitants better, if they could think of more logical, lawful, effective and, what is most important, productive ways of resolving the problems connected with the Sarsang reservoir.

FOR YOUR REFERENCE

The Sarsang reservoir was constructed in 1976 on the territory of Agdara district on the river Tartar, on the instructions of Heydar Aliyev, who was the leader of Azerbaijan at that time. When full, the reservoir's capacity is 560m cu m of water. The length of the shore line is 50.25 km. The height of the 555.1-metre-long dam is 125 metres and its width at the top is 10.2 metres. A dual-turbine hydro power plant with a capacity of 50 MW is also situated at the reservoir. At the present time the reservoir is occupied by Armenia.