diff --git a/scripts/pkgdep/debian.sh b/scripts/pkgdep/debian.sh
index 4a9211d04..ee92da747 100755
--- a/scripts/pkgdep/debian.sh
+++ b/scripts/pkgdep/debian.sh
@@ -6,7 +6,12 @@ VERSION_ID_NUM=$(sed 's/\.//g' <<< $VERSION_ID)
 apt-get install -y gcc g++ make cmake libcunit1-dev libaio-dev libssl-dev libjson-c-dev libcmocka-dev \
 	uuid-dev libiscsi-dev python libncurses5-dev libncursesw5-dev python3-pip
 pip3 install ninja
-pip3 install meson
+if ! pip3 install meson; then
+	# After recent updates pip3 on ubuntu1604 provides meson version which requires python >= 3.6.
+	# Unfortunately, the latest available version of python3 there is 3.5.2. In case pip3 fails to
+	# install meson fallback to packaged version of it ubuntu1604's repos may provide.
+	apt-get install -y meson
+fi
 pip3 install pyelftools
 # Additional dependencies for SPDK CLI - not available on older Ubuntus
 apt-get install -y python3-configshell-fb python3-pexpect || echo \