Ilisu in snow, but without water

There is now deep snow, the season of winter holiday lovers in the resort village of Ilisu, the Gakh region of Azerbaijan. Baku residents come to the area to enjoy the snow, go skiing and sledding, and take pictures against a backdrop of white mountains.

What the newcomers don't know is that winter is a season of disaster for the residents of Ilisu. Note that the villagers have to pay at least one hundred manats a month for gas and electricity, including the annual 300-500 manats spent on firewood. Even worse, there is no water in the village in winter, and the villagers carry water from afar to fill water tanks in their houses just like their grandfathers and great-grandfathers did. In the 21 century, the famous village is sinking into the pre-piped centuries. There is Internet in Ilisu but no water.

This was reported to Turan by residents of Ilisu by sending an e-mail. They report that the village authorities collected 100 manats from each yard to renew the water system. However, every year in winter the agony of people repeats - there is no water, and you have to carry buckets with water to the house on the ice.

In summer, too, there is no enough water in the village, and we have to carry buckets with water to the house, especially as the number of holidaymakers increases. Two years ago the state company Azeryolservis laid a new asphalt in Ilisu having placed it on old, leaky water pipes.  Turan reported on this in the publication.

In summer, water comes to the surface through cracks in the asphalt, gushing in some places. Note that water does not reach some yards. And in winter, the same water that comes to the surface destroys the asphalt and freezes, making movement around the village life-threatening.

Villagers write that the local authorities do nothing for the village.  Ilisu residents are supplied with water just as badly as in ancient times, although television shows how Azerbaijan is developing every day.

Hashim Hasanov, a representative of the executive power of the Gakh region in Ilisu, confirmed that there is no water in the houses and yards of the villagers in winter, explaining it by the frosty weather. For about ten days the weather in the village is 7-10 degrees below zero, so the water has frozen and does not reach the houses," he said. In response to Turan's surprise that water should not freeze in pipes underground, Hasanov replied, "The water in the river that feeds the Ilisu water system has frozen. This happens every winter, the local authorities can do nothing to cope with the problem".

Asked about the collection of money from the villagers for the construction of the ice-free water pipeline, the executive power representative said that not all families give money, but they pay 10 manats each for materials and work on repairing existing water pipes. Hasanov excludes the possibility of embezzlement of people's money, as reported by the authors of the letter to Turan. He believes that the complainants are not residents of Ilisu village but owners of houses built in the village by Azerbaijani immigrants in summer only.

Upon learning about the answer of the Gakh region executive power representative, the authors of the letter voiced their disagreement with the arguments of the executive power representative: "Representatives of the authorities do not live in a winter village nor carry water on the ice like ordinary peasants.

A question arises: Mountain villages exist not only in Azerbaijan. People also live in the European Alps, and the villages there also get their drinking water from mountain springs. Why then do the European mountaineers live in the 21 century while the people of the Azerbaijani mountains carry water on themselves?

Note that the Azerbaijani elite relaxing in the winter Alps do not complain about the lack of water.-0-