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Even as Azerbaijan’s natural gas exports surpass oil exports, villages like Varli Hayat in the west Shamkir district are forced to use ancient practices to heat their homes due to the lack of natural gas.
The roughly 50 families and 200 residents living in the village of Varli Hayat (which means wealthy life in Azeri) depend on dried cow dung (kərmə in the local dialect) to survive. Burning dried manure is an age-old way to produce heat. But the smoke and smell permanents the air they breathe and flavors the food and tea they prepare with it.
Tamam Abdullayeva, a 60-year-old resident of the village, is a member of a family of six. Her family, like others in the village, survive by raising cattle. It is also her responsibility to prepare kərmə, which is the family's main source of fuel. Abdullayeva has stored five piles of cow dung, which she says will last until Novruz, March 2024. The process of making kərmə takes months.
Tamam Abdullayeva piles the dried manure.
"When the weather cools and the cattle move to the barn, we start pressing cow dung. As soon as we clean the barn, we take the cow dung outside and spread it on the ground so that it hardens and can be pressed. After May, I start cutting and piling it. When the weather is good, it dries quickly and burns well. When it does not dry well, the smoke burns the eye. There are no trees left in the garden to cut and burn, and there is no additional income that would enable me to buy a truckload of firewood," she says.
Shola Abbasova, says that like all the residents of the village, her family suffers from the lack of gas. They depend on livestock to survive and can only afford to heat using cow dung. Abbasova stores the cow dung on the roof of her house or in the basement, much like many other families.
Abbasova says it is difficult to raise their young grandchildren without gas. “We have no fuel. We suffer from winter to spring. We have babies. We cannot take care of them without heat. As soon as we go out to get water, we see that the stove has turned off. There must be someone staying home and standing near the stove to make sure that the fire does not die. When it is winter we're in pain, we're sick.”
Village resident Javid Aliyev cleans the barn and collects cow dung.
Alternative forms of fuel exist but they are all expensive, compared to cow dung.
For instance, every family in the village has propane tanks to use for cooking and making tea. But it is costly to fill the tanks and the gas does not last long so it is used sparingly or for guests. At other times, they say that they still use cow dung. According to the residents, a family would have to spend 50-90 manat (€25-€50) a month to have enough liquid gas for food and tea.
Villagers collect hay for the winter. Sometimes, in cold weather, it is also used to prevent freezing.
Firewood is another alternative but it can cost as much as 1000 manat (€560) a year to use that as the main fuel source for a family.
“We cannot bring wood from the forest. It was forbidden. That's why we buy it,” explains village resident Tamiraza Gasimova. “We burn wood for six months…We put it in an oven so we could all gather around it. So only one place in the house is heated. If there were gas, it would be cleaner, we would have heat, and there would be better conditions in every room. The children would not get sick because of lack of heat.”
Once home to 50 families, just 30 remain in the village overall—although just a handful stay for the winter. Other residents, who don’t want to completely abandon the village, rent homes in Shamkir and surrounding villages for the winter.
67-year-old villager Eldar Mamedov and his family have struggled to find a way to stay in the village.
“Our life is being destroyed. I stay with my wife. Our two sons and a daughter live in the district center,” he explains. “My boys have not come to the village since they returned from the military. I did not stand in their way so they do not suffer like me here.”
He says in the winter, however, even he has to leave because, in addition to the cost of firewood, there are a lot of other issues: roads are closed and no one can bring propane.
“With a thousand pains, we burn cow dung, cook food and make tea. There was a man who burned a bundle of straw to not freeze in winter. Azerbaijan's gas goes abroad, foreigners enjoy our gas, we are left to die here in these conditions, and no one cares,” Eldar says.
Due to the lack of fuel in Varli Hayat, residents come together around the tandoor and bake their bread.
For instance, even though the village has a good school, it is closing next year due to the lack of pupils—too many families have left.
“There is a good school, built in European style. It has all the facilities, this year the school was closed. They said there were no children to serve,” explains Tamiraza Gasimova.
“This is because of the lack of heat. People leave the village. Those who own a house somewhere move there; those who don't have, rent somewhere else. Everyone wants their child to get a good education. In the winter season, there are seven families here. I have two children. One is 12 years old and the other is seven years old. They had to go to school this year. They will not be able to go because there is no school. No one who we complain to cares about it.”
Not all villages in the Yeni Goycha Administration, which includes Varli Hayat, lack gas, according to locals. Bayram Asadov, a 52-year-old resident of the village, said that two of the four villages belonging to this administration were covered with gas six years ago, and two remained outside. “There are seven villages across from Shamkir. How does it happen that five of them have gas and two have not? Because of the gas supply, there are households and a school, and people live comfortably.”
Bayram Asadov feeds calves.
"Here everything is being destroyed. We haven't seen gas here; we've just burned cow dung. No matter where we go, no one listens to our complaints. We are writing letters, but there are no answers," he says.
Gasification is planned, noted Rovshan Valiyev, a representative of the Yeni Goycha Administration: the project has been prepared, and now the budget has to be allocated for work to start.
“Gasification work was carried out in two other villages in 2016-2017. When laying the gas lines, the size of the villages and the population were mainly taken into account. For this reason, the larger villages of Guneshli and Yeni Goycha were provided with gas earlier,” he explained.
Varli Hayat village will receive gas in 2023, according to Novruz Mammadzadeh from the Public Relations Department of Azerigaz Production Union.
He explained that the gasification program is part of the “State Program of Socio-Economic Development of the Regions of the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2019-2023,” and gas lines are planned for three villages and three residential areas in the region, including Varli Hayat. “The work is expected to start in October of this year,” he says.
This photo story was prepared with support from the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) South Caucasus Regional Office. All opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of FES.
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