Floods in Azerbaijan cause many families to live in streets

Residents of the flooded areas of Azerbaijan who have lost their houses as a result of the calamity report that they received no compensation. Many of them have to live in the open air.

According to Panakh Gusein, an Azerbaijani MP from the Sabirabad District, the flooding destroyed households of many residents. "They cannot get back to their houses and lost their incomes, while the approaching heat will still more aggravate their problems," said the MP.

Gadji Dzhafarov, a resident of Azadkend village, Sabirabad District, said that in his village 127 houses are flooded, 74 of them were destroyed and 30 are in emergency condition. "The water level has dropped by 20 cm only, the situation remains grave," he said.

Now, Dzhafarov lives with his family in the tent camp in Sabirabad, the district centre. "Certainly, in bad weather when we hurried away from the village, the tent seemed a good refuge. But we can't live here for long. We have large families, and living in a tent is inconvenient. Besides, a hot summer approaches, and at plus 40 heat in tent will be just intolerable," he has added.

In the Saatly District, there is no tent camp for the residents who had suffered from the flooding. Residents of Musala and Narimankend villages, whose house are under water of flooded Lake Sarysu, live for four days in the field in the open air.

"Should we have given equipment in due time, we'd have pumped water away. Now we're without help; nobody helps us. All these days we bought foodstuffs in adjacent villages. But our last stocks and money have run low. We don't know the future," farmer Aliaga Gasanov, a Musala resident, said.

Suffered villagers have already blocked a road in Sabirabad, trying to draw attention of official agencies to their problems.