A three-day conference organized by IOM is taking place in
Azerbaijan to look at how an ancient water supply system can be
used to manage scarce water supplies in a world increasingly
affected by climate change.

The kahriz, first developed in ancient Iran about 3,000 years
ago to take underground water to the surface through simple gravity
flow, had been used widely for centuries in Azerbaijan's autonomous
republic of Nakhchivan to provide year-round water through a
network of interconnected wells and underground tunnels that
collect water from the hills.

But the system had fallen into disuse during Soviet times,
leading to drought and consequently, migration to other countries
as people were unable to sustain a livelihood through
agriculture.

An IOM programme that began 10 years ago with funding from the
UN Development Programme (UNDP) has since been restoring kahrizes
to provide sustainable drinking and irrigation water to isolated
villages in Nakhichivan so that they were not forced to leave their
homes and land. To date, 58 kahrizes have been renovated, providing
drinking water to nearly 6,000 families and irrigation water to
4,500 families with another 35 structures currently under
renovation.

The conference, which ends on 26 September and organized in
cooperation with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
(SDC), the US State Department's Bureau for Population, Refugees
and Migration, Nakhchivan State University and the Organization for
Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), brings together
scientists from Azerbaijan, Iran, Japan, Oman, the USA and UK and
other countries, as well as government officials and donor
organizations.

With water crises already evident around the world and the
poorest and most arid regions likely to be hit hardest by the
growing impact of climate change, the challenge for scientists,
governments, international community as well as civil society will
be to find solutions to the problem.

Participants will be able to draw upon the IOM kahriz
rehabilitation project in Azerbaijan as well as share experiences
from other countries using the kahriz system in order to explore
the potential of using such a system on a wider, more global scale
to meet the water needs of future generations.

The conference would also put in place best practices on kahriz
management and maintenance while encouraging more scientific
research on the system.

For further information please contact:

Vassiliy Yuzhanin

IOM Azerbaijan

Tel: +99450 613 61 67

E-mail: "mailto:vyuzhanin@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">vyuzhanin@iom.int