WATER : BEFORE THE UNION AND AFTER

We have to say, with regret, that Azerbaijan has never been a country that could boast of a problem-free water supply. Problems have always existed here: the situation was the same before the establishment of the USSR, under the Soviet Union and after its collapse.

Although water, especially in the suburbs of Baku, is supplied strictly according to schedule, if it is supplied at all, you can often see ownerless water flowing across the asphalt in the streets of the city, creating whole mini-lakes on the "arteries" of the capital. Such a "generous" attitude to water cannot but outrage townspeople, especially those who are forced to carry buckets of water from nearby courtyards to their "dry" flats.

Today the main problem is not just interruptions in H2O supplies, but also about its extremely low quality, which makes the water almost undrinkable. It is generally known that in many states of the world, underground sources are used for drinking water, while in our country water comes to the capital by five main water pipelines: two Sollar pipelines, one Ceyranbatan pipeline and two Kura pipelines. We have to say that almost half the flats in Baku get their water from the Kura pipeline, which is extremely polluted by domestic and chemical waste products from neighbouring countries - Georgia and Armenia. Chemical contamination cannot be detected without special laboratory equipment. For this reason, residents of Azerbaijan have no other choice but to consume this water and hope that the situation might change for the better in the near future, especially as the authorities promise to complete the construction of the Oguz-Qabala-Baku pipeline in the near future, in which the quality of water will correspond to all necessary world standards.

Water imbalance

In hot weather, water problems become especially important. In Baku, you can often see residents worn out by the summer heat carrying water from neighbouring courtyards with numerous buckets of "liquids". This often has to be done when the lift does not work, and such enforced gymnastic exercise, when the temperature is 40 degrees, might cause serious health problems. According to the head of the press service of the Azarsu joint-stock company, Aqsin Rustamov, the problem is that in summer, the population does not try to save water, but on the contrary, uses more of it, causing a shortage. Another cause of the water shortage is the construction boom and the fact that most of the country's population is concentrated in the capital city.

Rustamov stressed that the city's water network is designed for 1.8 million people, while according to unofficial information, there are about four million people living in and around Baku. The head of the press service also said that about 100,000 private houses have been built in the suburbs of Baku in the recent period.

"In most cases, municipalities and executive authorities do not observe technical requirements when they allocate land for the construction of private houses. As a result, people illegally connect to the water system available in this district, which leads to off-schedule consumption of water and causes a shortage. Azarsu employees are carrying out raids to discover illegal incisions into city water pipelines. In the past month alone, we have discovered about 10,000 violations of the sort, and house owners were fined in compliance with the Code of Administrative Offences. Raids are continuing at the moment," Rustamov said.

Indeed, it is difficult to disagree that citizens of the country often leave their taps on while doing something else. They do not worry that water is being wasted, whereas people in Europe are trying to save water and not to use it when they do not need it. Incidentally, specialists have calculated that if water drips from the tap in a flat, up to 24 litres of pure water are wasted, if the tap leaks - up to 144 litres and if the overflow tank leaks - up to 2,000 litres per day. Azerbaijan has never been abundant in water, which is why the issue of economizing on this important natural resource is especially crucial in Azerbaijan. Some people think that the installation of water meters would put an end to the waste of water because, in order economize, you have to see the results of your economy. The process of installing meters is now in operation, and it is planned to install water metering devices in every flat by the end of this year.

Drinking water is a relative idea

Residents of Baku probably remember the time when dirty water was supplied to their flats, and this was obvious even with a naked eye. If that water was held in a vessel, sediment of clay and sand would settle to the bottom of the vessel a short while later. 

Today the problem with the visible contamination of H2O seems to have been solved; water appears normal, except for the smell of chlorine that manifests itself from time to time. But at the same time, everything is not as well as it seems, and environmentalists have long sounded the alarm, saying that the water we drink should be used only for technical purposes.

Some buy distilled water in bottles, others settle for tap water and boil it, and others drink it without any preliminary processing, "ignoring" their health. As we know, 80 per cent of the human body is made up of water, and you cannot argue with this factor. In order to support life, every person needs to consume about 1.5-2 litres of water per day. We are talking about pure drinking water, although we have long forgotten what that is.

The problem of the quality of drinking water has affected many aspects of human society throughout its history. We will be right to say that drinking water is a social, political, medical and geographical, as well as engineering and economic problem today. The basic hygienic requirements for the quality of water for drinking and domestic needs are formed by the principle of safety from an epidemiological point of view and by its safe chemical composition. To all appearances, requirements are either fulfilled in a very inappropriate way or are not fulfilled at all, otherwise, how can you explain the fact that, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), 85 per cent of all diseases are the result of drinking low quality water? Twenty-five million people die of these diseases every year.

Azerbaijan's government agencies maintain that they keep everything under control and the water supplied to the capital corresponds to all international norms and requirements. Quite recently, the chairman of the Azarsu joint-stock company, Nizamaddim Rzayev, publicly said that the water supplied to Baku from Ceyranbatan and the Kura totally meets WHO norms. He pointed out that the composition of drinking water is tested every day and the allegations that water is dangerous for people's health are erroneous. According to Rzayev, water reservoirs are guarded by a special force.

However, immediately after that, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources (MENR) issued a statement that the pollution of the Kura by Georgia and Armenia causes concern in Azerbaijan, since the resources of this river are used as drinking water. According to MENR employees, analysis of the part of the Kura River that flows into the Caspian Sea shows that this water is not good for drinking. It can be used only for industrial purposes.

Chlorine does not solve the problem of H2O quality, but…

According to the head of the Azarsu technical department, Arif Aliyev, the main purpose of this organization is to control the quality of drinking water supplied to the capital. Aliyev said that with the support of foreign financial institutions, Azerbaijan is implementing various rehabilitation measures to restore water purifying installations and to reconstruct pumping stations. The Azarsu official said that the Kura water supplied to the capital, despite all the criticism, meets all the necessary norms and requirements. "That harmful substances are found in the water is not Azarsu's fault. Responsibility lies with trans-border states that discharge unpurified waste into the Kura. We should not forget that 70 per cent of Azerbaijan's water supply is sourced in trans-border states. As for Azarsu, our organization is doing everything possible to provide the population with high quality water," Aliyev said. 

He said that Kura water goes through several stages of purification and is then chlorinated. The last stage of "decontaminating" the water is the most reliable one and will definitely "kill" all microbes and bacteria in the water, Aliyev said.

"Chlorination has the effect of so-called 'after-action', i.e. chlorine continues to kill until the moment it gets into people's flats. Some countries of the world use a different way of decontaminating water, i.e. ozonization or ultra-violet rays, but chlorination is more reliable," Aliyev said.

We cannot but point out here that developed countries have long given up chlorination for one reason: chlorine is bad, not only for dangerous microbes and bacteria, but also for people. Components of chlorine (chloroform, chlorophenol, chlorides, residual chlorine and so on) have an oncogenous (carcinogenic) and mutagenous effect, i.e. they are capable of affecting people's genetic make-up. American and Finnish scientists have proved that the contribution of components of chlorine to oncological diseases is from five to 15 per cent. The high concentration of chlorine and its agents in water often provokes respiratory diseases, pneumonia and gastritis. Chlorine is also used as a shield against microbe infection when the water goes through the pipelines that stretch for miles in the city, although research carried out in recent years has shown that many viral diseases have immunity against chlorine. The ozonization of water and its decontamination with the help of ultra-violet rays are quite expensive. It is simpler to use chlorination only because it is much cheaper, not because it is more reliable.

In turn, the director of the ecological forecasting centre (EFC), Telman Zeynalov, maintains that the water in the Kura did not meet international norms before either. Now it is not suitable for drinking at all as neighbouring states are polluting it.

"Faecal water and waste products from various industrial enterprises on the territory of these two states are discharged into the Kura. How can you use such water after that? As for the decontamination of the river, this is a very expensive procedure, and Azerbaijan cannot afford it. Moreover, why should our state pay for somebody else's sins?" Zeynalov complained.

Our interviewee stressed that drinking water should go through seven stages of purification, while only four are used in our country. The last stage is chlorination. He also pointed out that the state water standard accepted in Soviet times is still used in our country, and it maintains quite strict requirements for water. However, Zeynalov stressed, we cannot say that the drinking water supplied to flats meets even this state standard, not to mention international standards.

"If drinking water in Azerbaijan was of better quality, foreigners would not be buying pure bottled water. The main problem is that neither Georgia nor Armenia have joined the convention on the use and protection of trans-border rivers and lakes, he said. This is quite a sad fact for our country since most of the water we consume comes from trans-border rivers.

In 2002, President Heydar Aliyev expressed his desire to improve the quality of drinking water. That's when specialists started looking for alternative sources of water, a venture which was crowned with success. Rich underground sources were found near Qabala and Oguz. The quality of this water really meets all the norms; it is rich in various mineral substances and does not need to be heavily purified. The construction of the Oguz-Qabala-Baku water canal is in full swing today, and the authorities promise that after it is completed, the problem of the water shortage in the capital will be totally solved. So we only have to wait and hope that the state "water" problem will be solved soon.