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On April 16, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev laid the foundation of the Shirvan irrigation canal to be rebuilt in the Hajigabul district and made a speech.

Axar.az reports that the chairman of the Azerbaijan State Water Resources Agency, Zaur Mikayilov, informed the head of state about the work to be done.

It should be noted that the land channel Upper Shirvan irrigation canal, which was commissioned in 1958 and is the second largest canal in the country, starts from the Mingachevir reservoir. The Upper Shirvan Canal provides irrigation to more than 112 thousand hectares of agricultural land and residential areas of Yevlakh, Agdash, Goychay, Zardab, Ujar, Kurdamir, Ismayilli and Agsu regions located in the Shirvan plain.

As a result of the continuous operation of the canal with a water carrying capacity of 78 cubic meters per second and a length of 122 kilometres for more than 65 years, a sharp increase in annual water losses, and the equipment falling into an emergency state and losing their functions, the land reclamation condition has deteriorated and degraded. All these created shortages in the supply of irrigation water to the existing farmlands during the growing season deepened the tension in meeting the ever-increasing water demand of the region and led to a violation of the ecological balance.