Ilham Aliyev attended a ceremony to supply drinking water to Kurdamir city

   First the head of state met with representatives of the district public.

  Saluting representatives of the district public, President Ilham Aliyev said:

- First of all, I want to sincerely congratulate you on the upcoming Ramadan holiday. I wish you good health and continued success. On the eve of the holiday, we are celebrating the completion of a wonderful project in Kurdamir.

   The supply of drinking water to Kurdamir is now a reality. According to my information, water is already supplied to homes. Gradually, this project will grow. Before the end of next year all water and sewage problems of Kurdamir will be fully resolved. Earlier, we built water treatment plants in the villages along the river. Now drinking water is supplied to almost 30 villages. At present, the project of water supply to the city is coming to an end. In short, the water problems of Kurdamir will be fully resolved. This is a great and historic project. The problem of drinking water has haunted people not only in Kurdamir, but also throughout Azerbaijan for many years. As you know, water reserves in Azerbaijan are not particularly large. Our main source is generated outside the country. Projects on water management, rational use of water and, of course, the creation of a modern network are of tremendous importance.

   The main thing is that the Azerbaijani government is addressing this problem. Of course, projects related to drinking water and sanitation are of great importance among infrastructure projects. In previous years, we successfully implemented other infrastructure projects. Most of them have now been completed, including the construction of highways. Now the Hajigabul-Kurdamir highway is being expanded. It will become a four-lane road. Gasification projects are being implemented as well. In Kurdamir this process has also become very extensive. Gasification has been provided at the level of nearly 70 per cent. But the gasification of Kurdamir District must be implemented by 100 per cent, i.e. throughout the district. And complete gasification will be ensured.

   Azerbaijan did not reverse a single social project even during the financial and economic crisis which has swept the whole world, especially Europe, in the past few years. On the contrary, salaries and pensions are increasing and funds allocated for social investment.

   The implementation of such drinking water projects requires large resources. The bulk of the funds is allocated from the state budget. Part of this work is done through loans, but these loans should be repaid by the Azerbaijani state. In other words, these projects are purely social. The investments made in these projects are measured in hundreds of millions, perhaps even billions because we have to remodel and reconstruct the entire water economy of our country. This investment is unrecoverable because state water tariffs in Azerbaijan are very low and it will be impossible to recover the investment made through the funds collected from the population. I want everyone to know this. There are investments that are commercial in nature. But the funds invested in infrastructure projects in Azerbaijan are purely social in nature.

   Highways, gas and water projects, rural roads - the government is doing that for a comfortable and normal life of our people.

   I am very glad that this project has already been completed in Kurdamir. The development of Kurdamir is constantly in the spotlight. As I noted earlier, in previous years the government also provided its support, implemented various projects and constructed social facilities, including a beautiful Heydar Aliyev Center. It is a center in the true sense of the word. It will conduct various activities. At the same time, work is being done in Kurdamir to create new jobs. Today, I will review a dairy and a livestock-breeding complex. In other words, comprehensive development of the district is already a reality. In the coming years we must maintain this high pace in order to develop Kurdamir even faster for the benefit of the people. 

   The Head of State viewed photo stands reflecting “Plan of Kurdamir city water supply”, “Plan of the Kulullu-Kurdamir-Ujar-Zardab” water pipeline and work done in Kulullu water reservoir.
Chairman of “Azersu” OJSC Gorkhmaz Huseynov informed President Ilham Aliyev of the “Reconstruction of water supply and sewerage systems of Kurdamir city” project and Kulullu water reservoir.

   He said the work under the “Reconstruction of water supply and sewerage systems of Kurdamir city” project started in October, 2011. The system is capable of supplying water and sewerage services to up to 22,300 people considering the natural growth of city population by 2035. In order to support population’s demand for pure water, it is planned to use Kulullu water reservoir of Aghsu region. For this purpose, it was planned to build a central water drainage system working on self-propelling basis, of 32 kilometers length. As part of the project, the construction of 7,500 cubic meters water reservoir and construction of 190 kilometers of splitting pipelines were planned. The collection and transition of the waste water will be fulfilled through 175 kilometers of sewerage pipeline and 4 sewerage-pump stations. The waste water will be transmitted to the waste water purification plant outside the city, with transmittance capacity of 6,000 cubic meters of water a day.
Kulullu water reservoir alongside with Kurdamir city will provide Zardab and Ujar cities and adjacent residential areas with drinking water.