Water Pipelines New, Standards Old

According to the press service of the JSC Azersu, the projects implemented in Baku and on the Absheron peninsula, as well as in 29 cities and district centers in 2015, improved the supply of drinking water to 200,000 people. 186,000 people were first provided with drinking water in a centralized manner, while 102,000 people moved to the uninterrupted water supply mode. Thus, 64.5% of the population of Azerbaijan and 79.2% of the population of Baku are provided with uninterrupted water supply.

According to the report of the JSC, in 2015 in the village of Kurdakhani a project was completed for the establishment of a new water supply system, and in the villages of Nardaran and Badamdar they started to implement new projects. The Bayil - Bibiheybat - Lokbatan 14-kilometer sewer tunnel was built during the reported period. In Lokbatan a complex new pumping station was installed to purify wastewater. In 2015, reconstruction of the water sewage system was launched in Astara, Dashkesan, Tartar and Gobustan. In Ujar, a water supply system was commissioned, while in Goychay they launched both a water supply system and a sewerage system. In Mingechevir, a water treatment plant was built with the capacity of 55 thousand cubic meters per day. In order to improve the provision of drinking water to the town of Shamkir they put into operation a water main Shemkirchay-Shamkir with a length of 16.5 km. Last year, in 29 villages with 66,000 residents in the Kurdamir, Ujar, Yevlakh, Yardimli, Zagatala, Fuzuli, Tovuz, Guba, Shemkir, Sheki and Beylagan regions the drinking water supply was improved.

The press service informs that in the period under review 866 km of water pipes with drinking water were built, 285 km of sewer lines were stretched, 35 reservoirs, 12 water and sewage pumping stations were built, 6 sub-artesian wells were dug, and over 80,000 water meters were installed, of which 52,000 are with smart cards. During the year, customers were sold 289 million cubic meters of water. Sewerage services were provided in the amount of 192 million cubic meters. The level of fees for services rendered increased by 2.4 percent, reaching 93.6%, and the number of customers increased by 56,000, amounting to 1 million 377 thousand.

In recent years, numerous projects have been implemented in Azerbaijan to improve public water supplies. Do these projects help to improve the quality of drinking water?

According to the expert of the Public Association of Assistance to Economic Initiatives Samir Aliyev, since the achievement of independence by Azerbaijan, a number of national standards and regulations have been adopted, but the Soviet standards remained for drinking water quality. Specifications were accepted only for bottled water. The State Committee on Standardization, Metrology and Patents, dealing with the approval of national standards, became a member of the Codex Alimentarius Commission in July 2010, committing itself to bringing the Azerbaijani standards up to the international ones. However, to date, these standards are not defined.

The Public Association for Assistance to Economic Initiatives, with the support of the European Commission and OXFAM has conducted research in connection with the drinking water quality and the standards governing the access to it. Samir Aliyev noted that the WHO guidelines on accessibility to potable water are still not satisfied.   -0-