Azernews.Az

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan will start using satellites to assess its water resource with up to 95 percent accuracy amid measures to improve the country's water resources.

The country’s satellite operator Azercosmos and the Virtual Azerbaijan Group of Companies held a relevant meeting to study water resources with the help of satellite images, analysis and proper processing of information obtained from groundwater sources.

Using Azersky satellite images, modern analysis and monitoring tools, it will be possible to locate the country’s water resources, especially groundwater, with an accuracy of 80 to 95 percent, Azercosmos' press service reported.

This, in turn, will lead to the rational use of the country's water resources.

It should be noted that Azerbaijan currently uses traditional methods to determine groundwater resources, which requires more resources in terms of both time and money.

Established in 2010, the Azercosmos provides high-quality satellite services for telecommunications and geographic intelligence.

Azercosmos along with Azerspace-1, Azerspace-2 and Azersky satellites, allow receiving signals from satellites of other satellite operators and via fiber-optic network.

Azerbaijan has been experiencing water shortage problem in recent years due to environmental factors and water management problems. Armenia’s previous occupation of Azerbaijani lands and deprivation of Azerbaijanis of water on the line of contact had also contributed to the problem.

President Ilham Aliyev, during the government session on July 23, urged the government to take measures to eliminate the water shortage problem in the country. Following this, he signed the order on additional measures to ensure the efficient use of water resources in the country and also approved the "Action Plan for 2020-2022 on ensuring efficient use of water resources".

In April 2020, Aliyev signed another order to improve irrigation and drinking water supply in 13 residential areas in 10 cities and districts of the country.

Azerbaijan’s water reserves are estimated at 30.9 billion cubic meters, out of which 33 percent are local inland waters and 66 percent are transboundary rivers.

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Ayya Lmahamad is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @AyyaLmahamad

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