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Drying up rivers - Kur

Kur river is the longest river in South Caucasus region.
Summer sunset in Kura river, Salyan 2018 capture:Incha Aliyeva


Most populous areas are located close to the freshwater sources. However due to high speed urbanization, growing number of people, unsustainable water usage freshwater resources significantly depleted. 

Water crisis started to be a case in some densely populated areas.

According to 2015 projection for Global Water strees Azerbaijan is one of the countries which probability of water crisis is high. Mismanagement of water resources is started to show water scarcity within the country. One of them is Kura river water level drop. Kura river is the major water vein.



Kura river, Salyan, August 2020


However the river has pollution problems and what makes problem's management more restrictive is river being transboundary. But what we are going to focus is drying up of the river. The case study will be lowlands of the river which is in Azerbaijan. If this region was facing floods in a last couple of years, this very last years 'it took us by suprise' the water in the river substantially decreased. What can be the reasons?

Worldwide agriculture accounts more than 50% of total water withdrawal. If we look at statistics in Azerbaijan, total irrigated area in agriculture for 2018 was 1449.4 thsd ha, while ten years back it was 1432.5 thsd ha. Comparingly, water usage in agriculture was 6692.4 mln m3, out of 9204.5 mln m3 and 5474 mln m3 out of total 7886 mln m3 water consumption respectively in 2018 and 2008 (Source: State Statistical Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan). There is not much difference in the area size, however in water usage intensity differs much.

Households consumption are one of the factors contributing to the drying up of the river. The water usage has been unsystematical, only recently water meters have been installed to the households in the regions and the process is still ongoing. This process is not 100% luck with the solution, however it has a share in water reduction  process.
Also tools like Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM), teach people on responsible consumption of resources, holding accountable industries should be prevalently applied.

Kur river passing through Tbilisi 2015, capture: Incha Aliyeva



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