Azeri official: Turkish hydropower station won't change course of Kur River

PanARMENIAN.Net - Ankara and Tbilisi reached agreement on construction of a new hydropower station in the territory of Georgia, with part of the energy produced to be given to Turkey.

“The reports that the course of the Kur River will be diverted due to the construction of hydropower station in Turkey are false. Turkey will only use 285 million m3 out of 1 billion m3 of water for power engineering,” chief of the sector for environmental policy of the Ecology and Natural Resources Ministry Mutallim Abdulhasanov said.

Abdulhasanov said the step will not influence the work of the Mingachevir hydropower station. As he noted, according to the hydrological data of many years, the volume of the water that flows in Azerbaijan is 2.17 billion m3, while the figure reaches 1 billion m3 on Turkey-Georgia border.

“285 million m3 water taken from the Kur River, will not impact the water resources and ecosystem of our country. Anyway, this is the sovereign right of Turkey. A state has the right to use 50 percent of the water resources formed in its territory. International conventions also confirm this right,” APA quoted him as saying.