President ordered to improve the water supply in 223 villages

Baku/30.01.14/Turan : President Ilham Aliyev signed on January 29 a decree calling for improving water irrigated acreage and private households , as well as the population in 32 223 localities of the country. For this state the Irrigation and Water Management JSC was allocated AZN 15 million from the Reserve Fund of the President of AR, as provided in the State Budget for 2014.

These funds will be used to design and drill 250 boreholes, which will improve water supply to 622 thousand people. This is the second such order of the President since May 2013. Then Irrigation and Water Management JSC received 6 million manat to drill 107 artesian wells for 310,000 inhabitants in 104 villages.

In Azerbaijan, suitable for agriculture are considered 55 % or 4,756.5 thousand hectares of land . Of these, 1,432.6 thousand hectares or 16.6 % are irrigated lands. Arable lands suitable for sowing are 1.8 million hectares, 181.6 thousand of which are occupied by Armenia.

Azerbaijan uses 7-9 billion cubic meters of water per annum, including 65-70 % for agricultural needs.

In 2013, in the territory of Shabran the Takhtakorpu reservoir was commissioned to improve the irrigation of 150,000 hectares of land and start crop rotation for additional 30,000 hectares. 08D