ამბავი
“When I get up tomorrow, the first thing I'll think about is water. The most important thing is water. I think of collecting my water before it snows. I come early and take my queue. Some people wait in line since 5 am. Once I came at that time too. I was afraid of the dark, so I didn't come again,” says 58-year-old Durra Mammadova, a resident of Hajialilar village in Azerbaijan.
The water shortages in the village are a reflection of a larger issue that plagues the country. While the government pledged to deal with the issue in 2020, the problem has only deepened in some parts of the country.
The women of Hajialilar, a village in Azerbaijan’s north-west Shamkir District, spend three to eight hours every day collecting water for their families. The only source of water in this remote mountain village of an estimated 600 inhabitants is a spring that flows through a creek outside the village. Residents—usually older women—have to go down to the creek two to three times a day to collect water. Women carry about 100 liters of water each time, transporting the containers on their donkeys.
Durra Mammadova lives with her daughter-in-law and two grandchildren. Both her sons, like most men of the village, are working in Russia. It is her responsibility to collect enough water for the family of four every day, which normally takes her between three to five hours. “At 8-9 am, I come and take my turn at the spring. I wait to fill 10 cans and usually barely make it home by 2 or 3 pm. My hands and legs still function,” she says. “There are old people who are sick, but they carry water in a bucket with their own hands. Or they beg and get a bucket of water from someone.”
“Men can't go to the water without a woman. We, women, feel ashamed if our man puts a danqara (aluminium water can) on a donkey's back to fetch water. We can't allow our sons or our husbands to come here and wait in line with women,” Solmaz Ahmadova says.
Residents use the water for cooking and other daily needs, except washing and bathing—for that they depend on rainwater. Most say they can bathe and do the washing once every ten days or two weeks.
“There is no bathroom. We bathe in the barn. We are trying to do it on rainy days. We put cellophane on the shed or a part of the house, we put big bathtubs on the floor so that the water does not spill. We heat a bucket of water for everyone and bathe with it,” says Roza Valiyeva, 53, a resident who has been collecting water at the spring since she was a child.
Roza Valiyeva says it is impossible to farm due to a lack of water. She also goes to work in other villages to help her family. When there is work, she works together with other women to work nearby in the potato fields of Gadabay or in the tomato greenhouses of Shamkir, a nearby district.
Life is hardest in the summer, residents say. As the temperature raises, the spring's water decreases even as demand increases. Fights sometimes break out.
Villagers note that originally, the community was created thanks to the spring, which drew families to settle nearby. The water from the spring has been slowly decreasing for the past 30 years, notes Ali Khalilov, a member of the village municipality.
“This was not the case in the Soviet era. At that time, the water pipe was full. A donkey was ready to carry water every two minutes. There were no big lines,” he says. “The village's water problem started mainly in the 1990s. Since 2000, the water has been decreasing. Now a can is filled in 20 minutes, half an hour. That's why we suffer like this,” says Ali Khalilov.
He notes that the main income of the village comes from labor migrants going to Russia. Currently, his three sons live and work in Russia.
People who find work elsewhere in Azerbaijan usually leave the village together with their families. According to Ali Khalilov, only 80 of the 113 houses in the village are inhabited.
The lack of water affects all aspects of life for villagers, including their marriage prospects. Residents complain that there are an estimated 40 bachelors in the village who cannot find a bride due to the lack of water.
“My son is 29 years old. I can't find a girl for him to marry,” notes resident Solmaz Ahmadova. “No parent wants their child to carry water with donkeys for the rest of their lives. The girls of our village go to Baku and Shamkir to marry," she explains.
28-year-old village resident Firdovsi Isayev ended up marrying a close relative because no one else was willing to move to the village. "There are more than 30 single boys in our village. They can't get married. Wherever we go, people say ‘you live as if it were still 1941-1945.’ In the end, I married my cousin," he explains.
Residents say that they have repeatedly asked for help to resolve the village's water problem. Requests have been made to the head of the district executive power, as well as the speaker of MP Sahiba Gafarova, the speaker of Parliament who is also a deputy from this district.
Seven years ago, the government built a water pump and two tanks—15 and 25 tons—in the creek that feeds the spring. But the lack of water caused the pump to stop and, after some time, the power supply was also cut off. Today, residents tie their donkeys to the pipes while they wait in line.
In interviews, the authorities responsible for water issues and the water pump appeared to contradict one another, adding to the confusion about the village’s fate.
The village executive representative, Eldar Murguzov, stated that a new source has been found and Azersu needs to check it to see if it could provide water to the pumps.
In an official response to an interview request, Neyman Safaraliyev, Deputy Head of the Public Relations Department of Azersu OJSC, underscored that collective appeal of Hajilalilar residents to the institution has been answered.
“Projects to improve the water supply of villages and towns where there is a shortage of drinking water are being implemented in stages, and the drinking water project in the village of Hajilalilar of Shamkir District is planned to be implemented in the future in accordance with the investment program,” he says.
Elgun Seyidov, the representative of the executive authority of Shamkir District, however, stated flatly that no additional source has been found.
“In order to eliminate the water problem of the village, the experts of Azersu OJSC and Melioration and Water Management OJSC inspected the area of Hajialilar village and found no additional water source,” he says. “At the same time, it was determined that it is impossible to get water out of the sub-artesian well due to the geography of the village. Despite this, all possibilities have been mobilized to eliminate the village's water problem, and various options are being worked on.”
In the meantime, villagers struggle to find a way to survive.
“Water is the root of all problems,” villager Roza Valiyeva says. “If I had water, I could plant, sow greens and grow tomatoes and cucumbers…We plant only potatoes in the yard. They grow if it rains, otherwise, they dry up.”
This photo story was prepared with support from the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) South Caucasus Regional Office. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of FES.
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