Azerbaijan, Baku, November 10 / Trend, I. Khalilova /
The Islamic Bank for Development (IBD) plans to continue its practice of financing consolidated projects in Azerbaijan, the Government told Trend on Thursday.
In September, the IBD approved a $200 million loan for the Water Supply System and Sanitation Improvement Project in six regions of the country, which initially should have been implemented in the form of two separate projects.
As reported, the opportunity of unification of two irrigation projects included in the cooperation program for 2011-2013 is currently being explored. The programme consists of the projects of reconstruction of the Mil-Karabakh water collector and the construction of the Shamkir machine canal.
An IBD consultant has already completed a feasibility study of a project of irrigation and melioration works which is aimed at agricultural development. The feasibility study's latest option has already been submitted for consideration to the bank.
In the fall of 2008, the IBD Executive Board approved a $347,000 grant to Azerbaijan for preparation of a feasibility study of the project of reconstruction of the Mil-Karabakh water collector. The Ministry of Emergency Situations of Azerbaijan confirmed the necessity of reconstruction of the collector after it carried out a corresponding examination. In its current state, the collector not only does not meet its designation but is also a threat to the surrounding areas.
When the study of the unified irrigation project is complete, the bank may explore the opportunity of assigning a loan to finance the project, which will become possible after the Government of Azerbaijan submits a request. Financing of the irrigation project is included in the IBD budget-2012; however, the total value of the project is likely to be announced after the feasibility study is agreed upon with the bank.
According to the IBD practices, if it disburses a loan for the preparation of a project's feasibility study it also provides the project's further financing.
The project of reconstruction of the Mil-Karabakh water collector alone is valued initially at more than $70 million.
Once the water collector is reconstructed it will become possible to re-cultivate another several hundreds of thousands land hectares.
This work is coordinated under the National Desertification Prevention and Desertification Agriculture Impact Reduction Program, which the Agriculture Ministry developed some years ago.
Apart from laying collectors and water canals and the construction of water reservoirs, the National Programme's key objectives are improvement of the work on agrarian meteorological stations, selection of new, drought and saline soil-resistant sorts of plants and the use of field irrigation digestive technologies such as drip irrigation, atomisation and fine aerosol.
The area of irrigated lands in Azerbaijan currently stands at 1,426,000 hectares, of which 130,000 hectares are under use and 30,000 to 40,000 hectares are located in the border zone. Apart from that, there are 189 water reservoirs with a total capacity of 21 billion cubic metres, 812 pump stations, 50,000-kilometre long water canals and 6500 artesian wells in the country.
A $9.4 million loan was borrowed from the IBD for the construction of the 67-kilometre Khanarkh canal.
This canal, designed to improve the irrigation system within an area of 62,000 hectares spreading over four northern regions: Khachmaz, Guba, Gusar,he and Devechi,, was built between 2002- 2007.
In line with the terms of the cooperation programme with Azerbaijan for 2011-2013, the IBD plans to assign a total of $1.4 billion to finance different projects.