Walking for Water in Azerbaijan
Energy-rich Azerbaijan says it’s on the job to provide access to safe drinking water, and international organizations say “significant progress” has been made. But in the village of Chelebiler, as in other rural locations, many people still lack clean, running water.
Located about 322 kilometers west of the capital, Baku, Chelebiler lies in arid, central Azerbaijan, where the main money-earners – grain, cotton and livestock – require much water.
No less so humans. But 30 of Chelebiler’s 170 residences can get drinking water only from a local artesian well.
It takes around two hours for local women –men consider the job inappropriate -- to reach the well, fill their buckets and come back home. Whatever the weather, whatever the season, this is their routine.