Baku, July 14 (AzerTAc). “Commissioning of the Shamkirchay water reservoir is scheduled for this year. This is a major infrastructure project. Tens of thousands of hectares of land will be irrigated. Coupled with the Takhtakorpu reservoir, it will greatly improve the supply of irrigation and drinking water in Azerbaijan,” said President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in his closing speech at the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers dedicated to the results of socioeconomic development in the first half of 2014 and objectives for the future.
“At previous meetings I also suggested that irrigated lands should have exact boundaries. So far, the information I am receiving is rather verbal - it states that 10,000, 20 000 or 50,000 hectares of land will be irrigated. But what land? Who has conducted this calculation? Who can say for sure whether it will be 10,000 or 20,000? We are allocating great funds for these issues. Of course, these projects are very important for the economy and social issues. But we need to know exactly how many thousands of hectares will be improved and how many hectares will be irrigated. Therefore, such information should be obtained in the coming months. All relevant agencies should work to provide me with this information. After that, we will certainly determine where to allocate loans and what agricultural produce will be cultivated on those lands, so that this work is not carried out spontaneously but systematically,” said President Ilham Aliyev.