BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 29
By Asif Mehman - Trend:
The water content in the rivers of Azerbaijan has decreased by 46 percent over the first half of 2020, which is a very serious issue, Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Shahin Mustafayev said, Trend reports.
“If in 2019 the volume of precipitation decreased by 17 percent, then for 6 months of this year the decrease was already 25 percent. This led to a sharp decrease in water resources in the country. The capacity of the country's main reservoirs is 20.5 billion cubic meters, but the volume of water in them today is 10.9 billion cubic meters. Considering that 8.6 billion cubic meters is the so-called "dead" volume, it means that we have only 2.3 billion cubic meters for use,” said Mustafayev.
Mustafayev noted that the volume of water was 12.5 billion cubic meters on July 29, 2019, that is, 1.6 billion cubic meters more than on July 29, 2020. In 2018, this figure was 13.8 billion cubic meters.
"Capacity of the main, Mingachevir Reservoir, is 15.7 billion cubic meters, the "dead" volume - up to 7 billion cubic meters. There are currently only 8.6 billion cubic meters of water in the reservoir, while last year it was 9.6 billion cubic meters. This means that the situation is quite tense," he said.