Azerbaijan's glacial areas have decreased by an average of 18% over the past seven years, Firudin Taghiyev, the head of the Land Use Control Department at the Ministry of Agriculture, said at the event titled "The Role of Climate-Resilient Agricultural Water Management Systems: COP29 Roundtable Discussions."
Taghiyev further emphasized that the country's water resources have also experienced a significant decline in recent years, with a reduction of around 18-20%. "In August of last year, a 4.2% decrease in the area of mountain lakes was recorded," he added, highlighting the severity of the situation.
The official also drew attention to the declining water levels in the lower reaches of the Kur River. "If we look at the last 3-4 years, we can see that the country is facing a serious problem: the Kura River no longer flows into the sea; instead, the sea is flowing into the Kur River," Taghiyev explained.
This phenomenon indicates that the Kur River, which originates in Türkiye, fails to merge with the sea in the Neftchala district of Azerbaijan. Over time, this could lead to a further depletion of the country's water resources."