Water scarcity not threatens Azerbaijan

/By Amina Nazarli-  AzerNews/

Water scarcity is among the primary issues of concern for many countries throughout the world in the 21^st century.

By 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world’s population could be under stress conditions, according to the UN.

Sunny Azerbaijan, with its complicated landscapes, is located at the convergence of several geographic zones and enjoys climatic diversity with its nine distinct climatic zones. The country is currently suffering a shortage at its water reserves, when compared to the two another Southern Caucasus countries.

Elbrus Alizade, the deputy director of the Geography Institute of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, however stressed that Azerbaijan is far from having a serious problem. “Even in the dry years, water shortage in the country is not expected,” he said.

Moreover, the deputy director said that when compared to the previous year, this spring has seen a lot of rainfall, which has lead to a sufficient amount of water having gathered in reservoirs in Azerbaijan and neighboring Georgia and Turkey.

To prevent future water shortage problems in Azerbaijan, Alizade recommended the installation of new reservoirs at the mouths of the rivers and beyond.

He noted that in the coming years, the country will install about 100 small hydropower stations and reservoirs. “Some 10 of them have been built and put into operation,” he said.

The country plans to build over 30 reservoirs by 2020, the deputy director added.

Earlier, economist Oktay Ahverdiyev noted that although this problem is global, water shortage is not a catastrophic issue for Azerbaijan, and in the case of the real shock to freshwater reserves, the country will be able to use the water of the Caspian Sea.

Some 75 percent of the planet's surface is covered by water and only 2.5 percent of the water is found on Earth. 99 percent of the Earth’s fresh water is in underground aquifers – some are nonrenewable while others are replenishable.