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In Azerbaijan, agricultural irrigation is the most significant demand on water resources and accounts for 90 % of total water use every year. Water abstraction for agriculture has increased by 76.5 % between 2001-2017. Water conveyance efficiency lowered dramatically during that period. In 2000, there was 8 050 m³/ha of water abstraction used for irrigation, whereas in 2018, this figure had increased to 14 000 m³/ha (The State Statistical Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan, 2019). In parallel to water scarcity conditions in the country, environmental sanitation problems (The State Statistical Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan, 2019) – due to return water from agriculture – have been experienced in small towns (Asian Development Bank, 2005). The use of fertilisers in agriculture caused increasing ammonium concentrations in rivers between 2009-2014, with the highest concentrations found in Gazakh-Ganja (see Chapter 6). The Asian Development Bank (2005) estimated there are 66 000 km of canals transporting water from surface water resources to the agricultural fields in the Kura and Aras basins, of which less than 4 % had been lined in 2005.