By building the Baku-Oguz-Gabala water pipeline, the government did not fulfill its promises

On March 17, the Cabinet of Ministers of Azerbaijan adopted a document entitled "Rules for paid use of water in the Republic of Azerbaijan", which provides for the collection of fees from citizens of the country for water in the near future, in the production and delivery of which JSC “Azersu” does not participate. It should be noted that ancient wells still exist in the Absheron villages, from which residents take water for watering plants, some wells even contain drinking water. Owners do not pay for wells. Residents of Azerbaijani mountain villages receive spring water flowing into their yards through ancient, sometimes preserved ceramic pipes. There is no "Azersu" in these settlements, there are no water meters.

For three months, from March 17, Advisor to the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Rasim Sattarzadeh has been collecting proposals from government departments on the implementation of this document, defining the methodology for measuring used water and charging for it.

The text of R. Sattarzade's statement says that in Azerbaijan payment will be collected from individuals and legal entities that take water using technical devices and equipment from underground and surface water sources (reservoirs, etc.). Payment depends on the volume of water used.

This news is in dissonance with the well-known, previous government assurances that with the start of operation of the Oguz-Gabala-Baku water pipeline, residents of the capital and settlements around Baku will receive drinking water around the clock. Moreover, the quality and purity of this water will be at a high level. However, to date, neither in some districts of Baku, nor in the villages of the Absheron Peninsula, as well as in Sumgayit and neighboring settlements, the promise of the government has not been fulfilled. On December 28, 2010, the ceremony of commissioning the Oguz-Gabala-Baku water pipeline took place.

The Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Oil Workers was engaged in studying the facts, documents, construction and protection of the rights of the owners of land plots along which this waterway was laid. Turan asked questions to the chairman of the committee, Mirvari Gahramanli. Her answers revealed the reason for the government's failure to fulfill the promises and intentions of the authorities given to the people to expand the scope of water collection.

- Why was the Gabala-Oguz-Baku water pipeline built?

- The only and best socio-economic indicator of the effectiveness of this water pipeline is the indicator of drinking water supply to the population of Baku. In what areas of the city and how many hours our people receive water - this is known. Baku receives water from five sources: the Jeyranbatan reservoir, the water supply from the Shollar village, the water supply from Khachmaz, the water from the Kura River and the water supply from Gabala.

In the 90s and 2000s, Baku was very poorly supplied with water, for this reason it was decided to design a new water pipeline to the capital from the Oguz and Gabala regions. The project was prepared inaccurately, hastily, with the expectation of taking underground water from artesian wells and delivering 5 cubic meters of drinking and high-quality water per second to Baku. In March 2007, the foundation of this project was laid in the village of Sinjan, Oguz district, and construction work began. Completed in January 2010, although the delivery of the project was planned for the end of 2008. The main executor of the project was Azersu OJSC, at that time it was headed by Oktay Asadov. All costs are assigned to the Oil Fund.

Design and construction of water supply were carried out by Turkish companies Turan Hazinadaroğlu İnşaat və Ticarət Anonim, Tekser İnşaat Sanayi və Ticarət Anonim company, as well as Azerbaijani JSC Ganja Körpü Tikinti 2. The wells were drilled by companies Arsan Arıtma və İnşaat Anonim and Özalp İnşaat Enerci və Sanayi Ltd. The German company CES Consulting Engineers Salzgitter was selected through a tender to implement project management and control in accordance with international practice. The length of the aqueduct is often given as 267 km, but there are other data about 260 km and 263 km.

- How much money was spent on the construction and who financed it?

- Initially, the government reported on the estimated cost of the project - 480 million manats. Then the total cost was increased to 779.6 million manats ($1 billion). We compared this amount with similar works in other countries. One kilometer of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, 1,760 km long, cost $3.5 million. And the construction of a kilometer of the Baku-Oguz-Gabala water pipeline cost 2.8 million manats (3.58 million dollars). We can say that the prices are close.

We carried out a comprehensive monitoring of this project, finding a discrepancy in the declared data. The website of the Oil Fund reported that 78 artesian wells had been drilled to a depth of approximately 150 meters. But according to our data, 120 wells were drilled to a depth of 150 m. The work was carried out in the water intake basin (Oguz, Gabala) and along the route of the water pipeline in the territory of 8 districts. The service life of the pipeline is 50 years.

- Was the construction and financing transparent?

- More than 4,000 landowners suffered damage from the use of their land for the needs of the project. Contracts were to be concluded with the owners two months before the start of work. But this did not happen, they simply dumped machinery and equipment on private land and began work. Not a single company was going to pay the victims for the destroyed gardens, the destroyed fertile layer of the earth, the occupied plots. We obtained compensation from Azersu JSC after hard work with the government. Land owners received compensation until 2019, after judicial intervention.

The selection of contractors was not transparent. The companies did not know the timing of the tender. From unofficial sources, we learned that 22 companies submitted their documents, five companies refused to participate, the names of the companies are still not known. Of the 22 unknown companies, seven are from five countries. The names of these countries are unknown.

Work schedules were not met, there were delays in the stages of work and payment of salaries to workers. The reason for the delays was not reported, the entire process was closed. There are many questionable points. It turned out that the Azerbaijani company “Azkompozit”, which sold the polyester pipes to the project, was established on December 29, 2006, and won the tender in August of the same year. How can an idle company win a tender? It is well known that cast iron pipes are more reliable and twice as durable as plastic pipes, experts report.

Some companies terminated contracts with contractors during the work, explaining that they had problems during the tender for the selection of companies. There was no monitoring and comments on the performance of work by foreign companies, or rather, we do not know about this. The Azerbaijani government took loans from the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to improve the water supply in Greater Baku. But no one monitored it. The government promised to supply Baku and its regions 24 hours with clean water that meets the WHO standard. Now we can say that after all the construction work, this did not happen continuously.

When the possibilities of improving the water supply of the country's population were discussed, they wrote that according to international standards, the population of Azerbaijan should be provided with 1.6 billion cubic meters of drinking and household water during the year. But the water intake regions are unable to supply Baku with such a volume of water. In 2010, as a result of our monitoring, we reported that over the years the volume of water in the water intake areas will decrease, so this project will become ineffective. Now we see it every day.

- Should a public examination be carried out and why not? What does international practice say about this?

- Initially, it was planned to complete the work in 14 months, but the work period was extended three times, and the costs of the project also doubled. Together with additional compensations to land users, the costs increased by more than a billion manats. There was no internal and external monitoring of the works, there was no transparency in design, tenders and works. The seizure of private land plots was carried out illegally, contrary to the Constitution and laws of Azerbaijan. Due to the fact that everything was opaque, the perpetrators of the listed shortcomings are unknown to society, there is no open information about those punished. No one was punished for failure to meet deadlines for contract work. Suffice it to say that the head of “Azersu” was promoted to the level of chairman of the Milli Majlis.

Only our organization, financed by a foreign grant, carried out monitoring at the work site for three years. The main shortcoming of the government was the lack of a document open to the public on the impact of the work on the environment. The then Minister of Ecology Huseyngulu Bagirzade invited us to the ministry, I asked him to show the assessment document of the project's impact on the environment, but he did not present such a document. They quickly, without planning, without caring about the environment, did whatever they wanted, violating the International Convention on Environmental Protection. In the Oguz region, 30 existing wells have dried up. The relic tugai forests have dried up. In Oguz, Sheki, as a result of thoughtless drilling of wells, now there is no water, farmers are suffering without water. The fertile soil layer has been destroyed; nothing has been done to restore forestry. There is no plan for reforestation after the completion of the plumbing. The forestry of the Shamakhi, Oguz, Ismayilli and Gabala regions was damaged in the amount of 5 million 736 thousand manats. This led to a violation of biodiversity, partly the animal world left the region, especially in the Oguz region.

- Is it possible to allow payment for wells and water abstraction from rivers for household use and under what conditions?

- I think that hastily, with impunity, without looking for alternative options, the work performed did not bring financial benefits to the state to cover loans taken in international instances. This happened due to improper project planning, without proper expertise. In order to collect the missing funds, the government decided to develop new standards for collecting money for water, which has always been used by the population for free. I am convinced that if for industrial, agricultural production it is necessary to charge for river and well water differentially, depending on the distance between the artesian well and the place of use, then the government  should not take money for water for domestic needs, for watering flowers, for use in the house and yards.

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We would like to add that in the Master Plan of the city of Baku for 2040, it is planned to increase the daily demand for drinking water in Baku and the Absheron Peninsula from 1.25 million m3 to 1.8 million m3. According to international standards, the population of Azerbaijan should be provided with 1.6 billion cubic meters of drinking and household water during the year. In Azerbaijan, water supply is by 5.3 times less, that is, 306 million cubic meters. This means 83 liters of water per capita per day, which is 5.3 times less than the international norm.

On the day of the start of construction work on the Baku-Oguz-Gabala water pipeline, the “Azertaj” agency reported that 40% of the population of the capital were supplied with water continuously, and 60% - according to the schedule. After the commissioning of the Oguz-Gabala-Baku water pipeline, about 75% of the population will receive water continuously, and the rest - according to a certain schedule. The water supply time according to the schedule will almost double. Further, it was said that new lines would be laid in the capital, the existing pipes of small diameter would be replaced by larger ones, thus, in the next few years, the water supply to the city according to the schedule would be completely canceled. And in the settlements adjacent to Baku, this problem will be solved as a result of the construction of a new water supply and sewerage system. Promises are not fulfilled.

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