Azerbaijan Has Harmed Itself... It Won't Be Able to Use the Sasang Water Either, Says Artsakh Official

In the context of the disruption of the only power line supplying Artsakh from Armenia, only locally produced electricity has been used in Artsakh since January 9. The ‘Sasang’ HPP provides most of the electricity and creates conditions for smaller hydropower plants to operate and generate power.

According to the Artsakh Public Television, the water level in the ‘Sasang’ reservoir has unprecedentedly dropped by more than 20 meters. In the current situation, the power plant is utilizing its entire production capacity to prevent the country from facing an energy crisis. The chief engineer of the ‘Sasang’ HPP stated that a significant amount of water was accumulated this year.

“But no one anticipated that the power could be shut off from the grid, and now we have been operating without a grid for 47 days; it’s very difficult, we are heavily burdened,” said Grigor Grigoryan.

According to the head of the Water Committee, if the uninterrupted operation of the Shinuahr–Stepanakert power line is not restored, there will be no opportunity to release water from Sasang in the summer. It will take several years to fill the reservoir.

However, the scarcity of water will pose a problem for the Azerbaijani side. “It was a very flawed policy on Azerbaijan’s part to disconnect the electricity imported from Armenia to Artsakh; they have harmed themselves. The Azerbaijani population, which has benefited from the Sasang water for agriculture over the past two years, will not have that opportunity in 2023,” said Gevorg Hayriyan.