REPUBLIC OF AZERBAIJAN
MAIN RESULTS OF RURAL INFRASTRUCTURE SURVEY
JUNE, 2001
1
AZERBAIJAN: Main Results of Rural Infrastructure Survey
(Draft 9 October 2000)
AZERBAIJAN
MAIN RESULTS OF RURAL INFRASTRUCTURE SURVEY
CONTENTS
PAGE
I. Objectives of the Survey
II. Summary of Conclusions
III. Methodology of the Survey
IV. General Information of the Villages Sampled for Investigation
Table 1. Socio-economic Data of Villages Investigated during the Survey
V. Perception of Major Problems in Rural Areas
Table 3. Perception of Problems by Rural Households
Table 4. What is the Most Important Problem Faced by Your Family
Table 5. What is the Most Important Problem Faced by Your Village?
Table 6. Perception of Problems related with Rural Services by Schools and Health Centres (in 39 villages)
VI. Transportation
Table 7. What is the Main constraint of Your Family Related with Transportation
Table 8. Perception of Constraints Related with the Marketing of Agricultural Products
Table 9. Do you Perceive the Following Aspects of Transportation as a Problem for your Family?
Table 10. Conditions of Inter-Village Roads by District
Table 11. Conditions of Intra-Village Roads by District (in %)
Table 12. Do you Participate in the Maintenance of Village Roads?
VII. Electricity
Table 13. Family’s Problems Connected with Electricity
Table 14. Do you Receive Electricity at the Time of the Interview?
Table 15. In Winter, On Average How Many Hours of the Electricity do you Receive per Day?
VIII. Irrigation
Table 16. What are the Factors which Explain that some of the Village Land was Left Fallow
Table 17. Are you Facing any Problem with Irrigation Water?
Table 18. Perception of Problems Related to Irrigation
Table 19. Organization of Maintenance of Irrigation Facilities
IX. Water Supply
Table 20. Sources of Drinking Water
Table 21. Storage Facilities Used by Your Family for Drinking Water
Table 22. Describe the Problems of Your Family Related with the Supply of Drinking Water
Table 23. How would you Judge the Water Quality?
Table 24. What is Needed to Deal with this Problem?
X. Telecommunication
Table 25. Do you have the Telephone Communication?
Table 26. Do use the Telephone Communication?
AZERBAIJAN
MAIN RESULTS OF RURAL INFRASTRUCTURE SURVEY
I. Objectives of the Survey
- In the transition from a centrally planned economy in Azerbaijan, the institutions responsible for operating and maintaining infrastructure in rural areas has changed. Formerly, certain services in rural areas were the responsibility of central agencies and others were managed by state and collective farms. The Government of Azerbaijan has recently decentralised responsibility for many infrastructure services to local governments, although lines of responsibility are not clear for some services. The Bank commissioned this study to assess how these changes have affected rural people, and specifically whether rural people are receiving the services they need or expect. A local consulting firm, Sigma Ltd, conducted the survey. An international expert from the Food and Agriculture Organisation helped design the survey, supervised the consultants and prepared the final report.
- The team conducted a survey to review the current situation of rural infrastructure and evaluate the impact on social and economic life in rural areas. The aim was to gather the users’ point of view and perception of problems related to these services. The survey includes irrigation and drainage facilities, domestic water supply, rural transportation (roads and means of transportation), supply of energy (electricity, gas, etc.) and telecommunications. The survey did not include social infrastructure (schools, health centers), except as users of other infrastructure services. The study aimed to describe the infrastructure available to the rural population (farmers, rural businesses, social facilities), to identify the gaps in service delivery and then to assess the extent to which these gaps matter to the rural population.
- The survey surveyed a sample of villages and interviewed with a sub-sample of households and local institutions (schools and health centres and small businesses) selected to be representative of the rural population of the country (see part III. Methodology below). The rural population is defined as people living in settlements of less than 5,000 and comprises about 4,200 rural settlements.
- Part II of this report summarises the main findings of the survey; Part III briefly describes the methodology for obtaining the information; Part IV provides some general information about the villages investigated under the survey; and part V provides the general perception of rural population about the problems faced in their villages. The following parts analyse specific rural infrastructure services in more detail: transportation (part VI); electricity (VII); irrigation (VIII); supply of water for domestic use (IX), and; telecommunication (X).
II. Summary of Conclusions
- General Perception of Problems. Even though economic conditions are highly problematic, as illustrated by an average unemployment rate of 52% in the communities covered by the survey, access to certain rural infrastructure services is perceived as a major constraint to rural wellbeing by an important share of the rural population interviewed in this survey. Ranking the problems relating to these infrastructure services shows that improved access to gas (mainly for heating during winter) and electricity are the highest priority problems, followed by supply of irrigation water. Transportation and communication are lower on the priority list and drinking water is perceived as a major constraint by only a limited percentage of people.
- Access to Energy. Only 32% of households have functioning gas services. Thirty nine percent have no access to the network, and a further 29% are connected but service is not operational. Only 13% of interviewed families have a functioning gas heating system. Although all of the villages visited during this survey and almost all households are connected to the electricity network, a very large majority (92%) of households perceive frequent interruption in electricity supply as a major problem. At the time of the interview, only 53% of families were receiving electricity. The problem is more acute in winter, when three quarters of households receive only 4 to 10 hours of electricity per day. The weighted average over the country is 7.2 hours per day during winter. To a much lesser extent, the deterioration of village transformers was also pointed out. During field investigation, 10% of them were found out of order. Rural schools and health centres perceived access to gas and electricity as the major bottleneck.
- Irrigation. Two thirds of the interviewees mentioned irrigation as an important problem. When focus groups [of farmers CHECK] were asked why some village land was not cultivated, issues relating to irrigation water were the third most frequently cited, after availability of agricultural machinery and funds for inputs. Approximately one third of respondents highlighted drought, insufficient water, and damaged infrastructure respectively. When asked specifically whether they have problems with availability or timeliness of irrigation water, two thirds of respondents indicated that these were major problems. There is some regional variation. In three districts, a low proportion of respondents have problems with irrigation water, whereas that is the case for 50-100% of respondents in each of the other districts. Farmers see quantity and timeliness of water and functioning of pumps as the biggest causes of their problems with irrigation water. Between 10 and 25% of them indicated that institutional and organisational issues lay behind the problems. They also indicated that the condition of the secondary irrigation network within village boundaries is not a major area of concern.
- Transportation and Communication. The availability of transport services does not appear to be a major constraint: Trucks can access 97% of villages visited in this study all year round, and trucks are available in 84% of the villages. Only 14% of respondents indicated that poor availability of transportation is a major constraint for marketing rural products. Respondents were more concerned about the high price of this transportation.. Inter-village roads are considered to be in at least acceptable condition by 82% of interviewees. The situation is slightly less satisfactory with intra-village roads, which are judged bad or very bad by 34% of households. Fifty nine percent of interviewees never contribute to road maintenance. Only 26% of interviewed rural households have a telephone line which is operational, the others have no line or the line is not in operation. Coverage of cellular phones is very limited (2.3% of families).
- Water Supply. Although on average in the country the access of drinking water is perceived as no problem or a minor constraint by 78% of households, the study did identify local difficulties. The main water sources are different types of wells (65% of users). However, irrigation and drainage canals still are an important source of potable water for 22% of interviewees nationwide. In addition, 18% of households said they had to bring trucks of drinking water in their villages. Only 10% of households have a water distribution system at home and the vast majority (80%) store water in tanks. The main problem mentioned by rural households relates to the distance to the source of water and the need to build further water pipes in order to convey the water to the villages. The low quality of drinking water is usually not perceived as an area of concern and only 4% of persons interviewed think that this could have a negative impact on human health. This issue has important regional variation.
- Regional Variations. Only a few questions can be analysed by districst, but these results show that geographic differences can be substantial. For instance, the supply of electricity is much more reliable in the Absheron district (20.5 hours of electricity per day in winter) compared with all the other ones. At the other end of the spectrum, the districts of Julfa and Shamakha receive only 3.4 hours of electricity per day in winter. Julfa district seems also poorly equipped with rural roads. Another example is the supply of drinking water which appears problematic in the Mil-Mugan zone.
III. Methodology of the Survey
- The survey was implemented in 16 districts, representative of the entire country. They consist of 8 pairs of districts, each of these pairs representing one agro-ecological zone: (i) The Absheron zone is represented by Absheron and Khachmas districts; (ii) the Shaki Zagatala zone by Shaki and Zagatala districts; (iii) the Gandja - Gazakh zone by Gazakh and Agstafa districts; (iv) the Nakchichevan zone by Sharur and Djulfa districts; (v) the Shirvan zone by Lankeran and Astara districts; and (vi) the Mill - Mugan zone by Sabirabad and Salyan districts. In each of the districts, 12 villages have been purposively selected (192 villages altogether) as representative of the various conditions of the districts, including 4 relatively large villages and 8 small ones.
- At village level, four types of interviews were undertaken: (i) 39 focus group discussions in order to discuss general village facilities, difficulties and issues with several villagers; and (ii) individual interviews with three randomly selected households in each of the 192 villages on the basis of a rather comprehensive questionnaire, mixing closed and open questions. This consists of the main source of information for this report. Altogether 576 rural households were visited; (iii) interviews with 39 groups of people who work in different types of social services infrastructure, including 23 schools and 16 various medical centres, in order to assess the impact of rural infrastructure on their operations; and (iv) open discussions with 48 rural businesses to assess their perception of rural infrastructure issues in relation with their economic activities.
- The principles of these interviews was first to identify and describe the main issues as perceived by the interviewees, both generally speaking and than more specifically in relation to rural infrastructure. In a second step, the different services were reviewed and more detailed questions and data collection were gathered on irrigation, water supply, transportation, electricity and gas, and communication. The data generated was than processed with the software SPSS (version 8), which is a specialized programme for social databases.
IV. General Information of the Villages Sampled for Investigation
- The following Table 1 provides socio-economic data on the 39 villages visited where focus group discussions were held. It also includes information on infrastructure at the individual level. The rate of unemployment appears very high at 52%. The access to telecommunication is relatively limited, as only 22% of households are connected to the telephone system and only 2.3% of them possess a portable phone.
Table 1. Socio-economic Data of Villages Investigated during the Survey
Average Size of Villages / 673 households2,058 persons
Average Household Size / 3.9 persons
Avg. Number of Village Labour Force / 1,029 persons
Avg. Number of Unemployed Labour Force / 536 persons
Avg Unemployment Rate / 52%
Avg Area of Agricultural Land / 849 ha
Avg Farm Size / 1.26 ha
Avg No of Households Connected with Telephone Line
% of these Households compared with total / 148 households
22% of total
Avg No of Households with Mobile Phone
% of these Households compared with total / 16
2.3% of total
Avg Number of Electric Transformers by village / 6.3 units
- Table 2 summarises the status of major rural infrastructure at village level. Most of the villages have access to basic health and education infrastructure (although, clearly, access alone does not indicate that the villages receive adequate services from that infrastructure). The apparent poor availability of electricity does not indicate low coverage of the infrastructure networks, rather, the figure corresponds to the percentage of villages receiving electricity at the time of the interview. Only 32% of villages say they have a functional access to gas. The accessibility of villages by roads does not appear very problematic in the visited villages.
- Many villages had seen a number of changes in local institutions. All but one had established a municipal government. Forty percent of them had set up Water User Associations to manage irrigation water.
Table 2. Availability of Major Rural Infrastructure Services and Institutions at Village
Level (from Focus group discussions in 40 villages)
Yes / No / Yes, but not operationalRural School / 100% / 0% / 0%
Village Medical Centre / 82% / 10% / 8%
Post Office / 80% / 3% / 18%
Electricity (*) / 59% / 0% / 41% (sometimes)
Water pipes / 41% / 38% / 21%
Do villagers pay a fee for drinking water? / 22% / 78% / N/A.
Gas Facilities / 32% / 39% / 29%
Gas Heating system / 13% / 72% / 15%
Telephone Line / 80% / 10% / 10%
Can the vehicles use the roads all year round? / 97% / 3% / N/A.
Does the village have transportation vehicles? / 84% / 16% / 0%
Are the village roads maintained? / 23% / 54% / 23% (partially)
Municipality Government / 97% / 3% / N/A.
Water User Associations / 40% / 60% / N/A.
(*) For electricity, the answer “Yes, but not operational” means “Sometimes”, it corresponds to the absence of electricity at the time of the interviews (see below)
V. Perception of Major Problems in Rural Areas
Perception of Problems by Rural Households
- Before entering into details, individual interviewees were asked to express their perceptions of the main problems faced by their family. Summary results are shown in Table 3. The two columns “substantial problem” and “major problem” have been grouped in order to indicate which problems rural households perceive as most serious. The most important issue is the access to gas (93%) which is linked to problems with heating during winter (mentioned by 86% of respondents). Socio-economic conditions in the village constitute the second group of issues in order of importance: unemployment (91%) and lack of credit (80%) and poor access to credit resources (79%). In third position comes the access to electricity (80%) and in fourth position the access to irrigation (66%). To a lesser extent, telecommunication (56%) and transportation (40%) are also seen as constraining rural life.
- At the other end of the ranking, the access to water for domestic use is not perceived as a problem or only a slight one by 78% of respondents. The quality of drinking water is even less of a concern for 82% of rural households.
Table 3. Perception of Problems by Rural Households
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 3+4No Problem / Slight Problem / Substantial Problem / Major Problem
Access to gas / 4.5 / 2.2 / 21.1 / 72 / 93.1
Unemployment / 2.6 / 6.1 / 40.2 / 50.5 / 90.7
Heating during the winter / 5.8 / 7.5 / 24.9 / 61.6 / 86.5
Lack of credit / 12.4 / 7.1 / 35.1 / 45 / 80.1
Access to electricity / 8.9 / 10.8 / 33.1 / 46.6 / 79.7
Access to credit / 11.8 / 6.8 / 36.6 / 42.8 / 79.4
Access to irrigation water / 25.1 / 8.2 / 19.7 / 46.8 / 66.5
Telecommunication / 28 / 15.9 / 37.6 / 18.1 / 55.7
Access to health services / 39.1 / 17.6 / 33.9 / 9.1 / 43
Access to agricultural inputs / 30.1 / 28.3 / 24 / 16.8 / 40.8
Transportation of people/ goods / 28.9 / 30.9 / 25.8 / 14.1 / 39.9
Marketing of their products / 32.6 / 31.1 / 22.5 / 13.7 / 36.2
Access to farm equipment / 30.1 / 31.3 / 21.3 / 14 / 35.3
Access to drinking water / 55.8 / 21.9 / 11.9 / 10.3 / 22.2
Access to agricultural land / 42 / 35 / 12.2 / 10 / 22.2
Quality of drinking water / 63.3 / 18.5 / 10.4 / 7.6 / 18
Access to education / 58.7 / 25.6 / 7.8 / 7.4 / 15.2
- The concerns included in the previous Table have been broken down by age of the respondents, i.e., 18-35 years; 36 – 50 years; 51 – 65 years and over 65 years. Results are displayed in Table B. of Appendix 1.
- In order to prioritise these constraints, the respondents were asked to choose the single most important problem faced by their family (Table 4) and by the village (Table 5). By far, the access to rural services is the number one problem, both at family level (68% of respondents) and at village level (61%). Following is unemployment which is the major issue for 23% of household at family level and 16% at village level. The third problem is access to financial resources for 13% of respondents. Other issues mentioned include: transportation (issue number one for 5% of people of the village level) and access to health and education.
Table 4. What is the Most Important Problem Faced by Your Family
List of Problems Mentioned / (%)Provision of Rural Services (gas, electricity...)
Unemployment / 60.8
23.4
Financial providing / 12.7
Sale of the agricultural products / 1.1
Transport / 0.5
Absence of schools / 0.5
Poverty
Access to Health / 0.5
0.4
Table 5. What is the Most Important Problem Faced by Your Village?
List of Problems Mentioned / (%)Providing of drinking water, gas, electricity / 68.5
Unemployment / 15.6
Transport / 5.6
Financial providing / 4.9
Health using / 2.5
Technical shortage / 1.4
Sale of the agricultural products / 1.1
Others / 0.6
- 39 social services providers (including 23 schools and 16 various medical units) have been interviewed in order to identify their main constraints. Spontaneously, when asked to point out the main constraint of their unit, the main answers of the managers are the following: (i) lack of medicines (obviously for the medical points) (26%); (ii) the heating system which does not work (24%); (iii) the lack of equipment and materials for operating the structure (18%); (iv) the need for repair of the building (16%); and (v) the issue of drinking water (10%).
- The following Table 6 shows their answers to more specific questions related to rural infrastructure services. Telecommunication and energy appears to be the main constraint of these institutions. The lack of electricity and gas and related problems of heating during winter are heavily shown as major constraints.