Kurdamir, 4 June 2009 - WATER – in one word, so many meanings. As Loran Eisenly, a famous poet, once said, “If there is magic on this planet, it is in water.” For some, it is to cherish this wonderful gift of God like a sacred treasure, walking for miles to get it, under the sun, sometimes barefoot, while others take it for granted. Every day, a lack of safe drinking water and adequate sanitation facilities claims about 6,000 lives, most of them, children. Some 700 million lives in 43 countries are affected by water scarcity. Moreover, 1.8 million people die every year from diarrheal diseases, including 90% of children under the age of 5.

Delivering safe drinking water, treating waste water and providing sanitation facilities is an extremely important issue and “crucial for poverty reduction, crucial for sustainable development, and crucial for achieving any and every one of the Millennium Development Goals,” the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon stated referring to the global targets to slash poverty, illiteracy, disease and other social ills by 2015, collectively known as the MDGs. To draw international attention to this imminent problem, the United Nations proclaimed the period from 2005 to 2015 the International Decade for Action.

With that in mind and to examine the status of achieving the seventh Millennium Development Goal (MDG7) - “Ensure environmental sustainability” in Azerbaijan and challenges in the field of access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation combined to hygienic behaviors, the United Nations Department of Public Information (UN DPI) Office in Azerbaijan, in close cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Ministry of Ecology and “Umid” Humanitarian and Social Support Centre, conducted a roundtable discussion in Kurdamir region of Azerbaijan, 280 kilometres west of Baku.

The participants of this event titled “Towards improving the access and the quality of safe drinking water and sanitation facilities” came from various government bodies, the NGO sector and the representatives of the Kurdamir villages that are experiencing severely the ‘silent crisis’ of safe water and basic sanitation. The residents of this region suffer from the shortages of drinkable water deficit due to low precipitation and high evaporation. Also, irrigation water use and soil salinity in the same region and elsewhere are associated with malaria incidence.

As for Azerbaijan as a whole, considerable progress has been achieved regarding adequate supplies of safe drinking water that lead to a better health and higher standards of living; nearly three quarters of population use drinking water from improved water sources. Nevertheless, Azerbaijan is poor in terms of available water resources and there are still troubling spots, mainly affecting the rural population. While 76% of the people have access to piped water in the urban cities, only 19% have access to piped water in rural areas and 65% of the people receive their water through public tap, borehole, dug well or other not improved sources. Over the past years, quality of water infrastructure and services has deteriorated since independence due to insufficient investment and maintenance. In many secondary and small towns, water treatment facilities are dysfunctional or lacking completely.                           

By the same token, the situation of basic sanitation facilities is not any better than that of water. Most rayons do not have functioning sewerage collection and treatment systems. Those available are in poor state of functioning, posing serious threats to public health and the environment. Due to the inadequate cost recovery and billing system to cover the basic cost, tackling these issues is left alone to the mercy of government subsidy.

As a genuine effort to offer possible solutions to these ongoing problems in Azerbaijan, this roundtable discussion provided an open platform for a lively discussion, which offered guidance towards the attainment of available and quality of safe drinking water in Azerbaijan, thus achieving one of the important targets of the MDG7, consequently, a better life for the people of Azerbaijan.

Mr. Fakhraddin Melikov, Head, Executive Committee, Kurdamir region, discussed the shortage of drinking water in this region and the current government projects aimed at ensuring safe drinking water and sanitation facilities.

One single project was specifically highlighted, the design and installation of a 261-kilometre long potable water pipeline through the regions of Oguz-Gabala- Baku to supply quality of drinking water to the local population. When elaborating on the various ways to improve the sustainability of water supply and sanitation facilities in Azerbaijan, Mr. Melkov emphasized the individual efforts for ensuring environmental sustainability and the importance of raising awareness about the need for sake drinking water. “The strongest weapon in this respect is conscience,” uttered Mr. Melikov and thanked the organizers of this event, particularly Ms. Envera Selimovic, Representative of the UNDPI Office in Azerbaijan and Mr. Mohamed Alami, Representative of UNICEF in Azerbaijan, for their commitment to raise awareness about this matter.

 Agreeably, Mr. Mohamed Alami affirmed the need for and importance of raising awareness and education at home and in schools to promote hygiene and sanitation ethic among children and adults. Mr. Alami suggested that Executive Committees and particular parties such as Azersu JSC, a company managing water supply in the country, should be informed about the quality of drinking water provided to homes and schools and urged everybody to “think of new ways to better ensure safer drinking water and sanitation facilities.”

While presenting the work of the UNDP in Azerbaijan, Ms. Jamila Ibrahimova underlined that “resolving the challenges in the area of governance should be a key priority if we are to achieve sustainable water resources development and management” not only in Azerbaijan but around the world. 

“Generally, the role of the UNDP is to assist countries to build capacities and put in place effective and sound policies and institutions to manage water resources in a sustainable way,” Ms. Ibrahimova pointed out.

In Azerbaijan, for that matter, the UNDP supports a number of projects, including a project for solid waste management improvement that help review legal basis, establish national solid waste data bank, and build capacity to conduct feasibility studies and awareness campaigns and develop partnerships with the private sector. The UNDP also promotes small hydropower in Azerbaijan. This project advises on the use of water resources for energy generation. The aim of the project is to transfer knowledge and experience to the legal and institutional framework from Norway, the world’s leader in hydropower development.

Summing up discussions, Mr. Israil Iskenderov, Executive Director at “Umid” Humanitarian and Social Support Centre, emphasized the education and continuation of awareness raising one more time. “I am really thankful that the UN DPI office recognized the need of Kurdamir’s people, and hope to have similar gatherings in the future.”

In her turn, the DPI Representative, Ms. Envera Selimovic, said that this event is a continuation of a series of roundtable discussions that the UN DPI Office, in partnership with various UN agencies, has organized this year and promised more to come. “I am very keen to put regions into spotlights and touch upon the daily struggle of everyday people. They live in much harsher conditions than those in the capital and I hope that these gatherings will encourage relevant government institutions and international organization to take action to look more closely to what can be done in rural areas.”

As a further note, Ms. Leyla Tagizadeh, Head of the Environmental Sanitation Division, Republican Centre of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Ministry of Health, articulated her contentment and enjoyment with the lively roundtable discussions, “which provided a guidance towards raising awareness on the efforts of various organizations in ensuring safer drinking water and sanitation facilities in Azerbaijan and challenges on the access to potable water that people face in rural areas.”

This gathering proves once again that UN DPI is doing an excellent job in the in the areas of communication and advocacy to raise awareness on the challenges and opportunities in various fields, says Dr. Alami, Head of UNICEF office, at the end of the event. “I am glad that I was taking a part at this wonderful event where the DPI Office brought together the right people for the right reason.”