FAITH IN SOLLAR

Such is the way of things: all the significant events in the world and the lives and deeds of well-known individuals have always been wrapped in legends. In this respect it is highly unlikely that you will find anyone to compare with Haci Zeynalabdin Tagiyev, whose name has been linked with so many fanciful stories. Of course, this is not the fault of the great philanthropist himself. It is his most extensive teaching and charity work and his ability to live and breathe the cares and aspirations of his people that are "to blame". That is precisely why any noble cause of the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century is invariably linked with Tagiyev's name - both during his lifetime and after.

Source of life

It will soon be the centenary of one of the most important events in the life of the capital - the completion of the construction of the Baku-Sollar water conduit and the supply of drinking water from the foothills of Mount Sahdag. Today, when almost anyone in Baku is asked "When was the Baku-Sollar water conduit built and by whom?" he will reply: "It was in Tagiyev's time and with his money". And the "well-informed" Bakuvian will not fail to tell the story: "Some rich Bakuvians gathered together at Tagiyev's house to try to resolve the problem of supplying the city with drinking water. To bring the water from the Kura cost 10 million roubles and from the small town of Sollar - 20 million. Everyone knew that the Sollar water was much better but the wealthy folk didn't have enough money to lay a water pipeline from there. And Haci said at the time: 'You invest 10 million, I'll put up the rest and we'll supply the people of the city with pure water.' And so, thanks to Haci, that was how the water from Sollar reached Baku." However archive documents show that the Baku-Sollar water conduit was not built with Tagiyev's money or from any other affluent individuals - all the necessary funds were allocated by a decree of Emperor Nicholas II.

Some researchers write that in the second half of the 19th century Baku was a desolate, arid city. It is difficult to go along with such claims if you bear in mind that the city is situated on the Great Silk Road. The caravans would hardly have chosen a place where there was no water to stop over. It was well known that there were a number of wells in the city with fresh water to satisfy the needs of the population for drinking water. One of these wells, for example, was situated in the backyard of a house on Verkhne-Tezepirskaya Street (now Mustafa Subhi Street) which belonged to Karbalai Huseynqulu Mammadqulu oglu. The merchants delivered the water from the wells in Vodovoznaya (now Almaz Ildrim) Street and Kolodeznaya (now L. and M. Rostropovich) Streets in barrels all over the city. The water volume unit was the bucket and the authorities set a tax on the water. It sometimes happened that the water-carriers bought the water from the well owners in large buckets and sold them in smaller ones.

However, the rapid development of industry at the end of the 19th century, especially the oil industry, which was accompanied by a rapid increase in the population, started to cause an acute shortage of water, especially fresh water.

The problem of supplying Baku with fresh water became a headache for the municipal Duma, which was first elected in 1878. The widespread cholera that struck the city in 1892 forced the authorities into a more vigorous search for drinking water. Although surveys for water in the Abseron Peninsula showed the existence of subterranean currents, there was no proof of sufficient quantities. The oilman Ludvig Nobel proposed drawing water from the Volga but this idea proved unviable both technically and commercially. Nevertheless, the Admiralty supplied water for its employees from the Volga, passing it through a fresh-water generator set up in Bayil. Before the commissioning of the Baku-Sollar water conduit water from the Kura River, also purified by a fresh-water generator, was the main source of drinking water.

Water for the whole of Baku

Eventually the municipal government fixed its choice on two options for the water conduit: from the Kura and from the Samur. The Kura conduit option, which was prepared by engineer Artyukhin, was rejected for a number of flaws. And in 1899 the British engineer William Lindley was invited by the municipal Duma to design the Samur-Baku water conduit. A contract was agreed with him to draw up the drafts for two pipelines - from the Kura and the Samur, as well as a project for the Baku sewage system. He received 9,000 roubles by way of advance payment. Lindley, along with his aides, visited Quba Province and studied the possibilities of the Samur River for providing Baku with water. There Lindsey's attention was drawn to springs in the foothills of the Sahdag. On his return to Baku he persuaded the municipal Duma to use not river water from the Samur to supply Baku but the subsoil waters in the village of Sollar. But he did not provide the Duma with any calculations about the water reserves, although Lindsey had in his possession the chemical and biological analyses of the spring water which testified to its high quality. Many members of the Baku municipal Duma refused to believe Lindsey and demanded that he provide hard evidence of the existence of reserves of subsoil water. But at the same time they refused to give him the money to carry out the necessary research, insisting on the water conduit from the Samur.

Among those who trusted Lindley implicitly and assisted him in every way was Duma MP and member of the water conduit commission Haci Zeynalabdin Tagiyev. It is hard to say on what this faith was based on. It may be it was just intuition that prompted Tagiyev to believe that there were vast reserves of fresh water at Sollar which could be supplied to Baku. It is quite possible that it was this deep belief in the realism of Lindsey's proposals and support for his idea that was one of the reasons for the talks about the construction of the water conduit from Sollar and the money.

However, it was not just on Tagiyev's say-so that the idea of the Baku-Sollar water conduit was backed. An extraordinary meeting of the municipal Duma was held on 19 June 1901. A proposal to allocate 30,000 dollars to prospect for subsoil water was rejected by a majority vote. On 23 June the philanthropist sent a letter to the Duma in which he said that he would provide 25,000 roubles out of his own pocket for the drilling of wells at Sollar. At the same time he set a condition: if the drillings yielded positive results, i.e. the presumptions of a large quantity of subsoil water were confirmed, the municipal Duma would return his money to him.

The drillings proved that Lindsey was right: the volume of subsoil water exceeded Baku's requirements for fresh water ten times over. A project for the Baku-Sollar water conduit was soon completed. Now the question of financing the construction work had to be resolved. In 1910, on a proposal of the Council of Ministers of the City of Baku it was decided to release two bonded loans to the overall sum of 27m roubles. The proceeds from one of the loans of 23.5m roubles were provided for the construction of the Baku-Sollar water conduit. Subsequently, it was found that this money was not sufficient for the work and in 1915 another 12m roubles had to be borrowed. The festive opening of the Baku-Sollar water conduit, through which water was supplied to the city, took place on 21 January 1917. At Tagiyev's proposal, William Lindley was given this honour. As a sign of the recognition of Lindsey's services, one of Baku's streets was re-named Lindsey Prospekt (now 28 May Street).