Turkey suspends project on Kur river

Work on the project to change the course of the Kur river because of the construction of the Beshikaya cascade hydropower station is suspended, the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Forestry reported.  This project is not on the ministry's agenda and no reason was given for the suspension.

Earlier sections of the media reported that construction of Beshikaya cascade hydropower station in Turkey is coupled with the change of the course of Kur River. According to this information, Kur will stop to flow through Georgia and Azerbaijan and will pour into the Black Sea instead of the Caspian.

These issues were discussed during the recent visit of the Turkish parliamentary delegation to Georgia. The Azerbaijani Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources told Trend earlier that Turkey's initiative does not cause any inconvenience to the Azerbaijani side.

In this regard, with the help of Azerbaijani specialists in Turkey, studies were conducted to identify features of the project, which will be implemented in the Erdahan region. The volume of water produced per year in the region equals to about one billion cubic metres sent to Georgia. Turkey for its own purpose intends to use only 285 million cubic metres.

He said the water flowing to Azerbaijan through the Georgian border is 8.7 billion cubic metres per year, while the total water reserves of the Kura per year is 26.9 billion cubic metres. Thus, the Turkish side will use only about three per cent of the reserves of water coming out of Georgia, which is not harmful to water resources or other fields of ecosystems of Azerbaijan.


/Trend/