Heavy rains in Baku have flooded streets and homes as the Azerbaijani capital hosts the 13th session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13). The venue where the forum is being held, the courtyard of the Baku Olympic Stadium, has also experienced flooding, as participants were seen wading through flooded streets.
The flooding of the area became known thanks to a video posted on social media by one of the forum’s foreign participants.
The video shows forum participants of various nationalities crossing the water, holding their shoes in their hands with their pants rolled up.
During late March and early April, Baku and several districts in northern Azerbaijan experienced severe floods as a result of heavy rain and landslides.
According to the Ministry of the Emergency Situations, over 500 people were evacuated during the floods that struck Baku.
In late April, President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree to cover damages caused by the floods, allocating ₼86 million ($50 million) from the state budget for ‘construction of dams on rivers, repair of equipment at sewage pumping stations, elimination of soil subsidence and landslides, subsidence in sewer collectors, and damage to electrical networks’.
Despite emerging reports on social media about floods surrounding the Baku Olympic Stadium, no official statement has been released.
On May 18, Anar Guliyev, the national coordinator of WUF13, stated that climate change was at the root of the problem.
‘In fact, just the first two days of this forum have shown us completely different weather conditions, and this is also a result of climate change’, Guliyev said at a press conference after the forum’s opening ceremony.
According to him, he grew up in Baku and never saw such rain in May.
‘Honestly, as someone who grew up in Baku, I've never seen so much rain in May. It’s unnatural. But this is what we're facing; it’s reality’.
Guliyev’s comments drew criticism from social media users, who claimed the issue wasn’t caused by abnormal rainfall, but by misgovernment.
‘The rain is not above normal, the corrupt officials are above normal. You’re robbing and profiting beyond normal limits. You’ve brought the city to this state. If there had been a flood, the water would have passed through the infrastructure and calmly reached the Caspian Sea. Not every rainfall is above normal, but every rainfall brings the city to this state. The problem is you’, wrote Aynur Hilal, a social media user.
Aytan Farhadova
