Sabir Israfilov, (Director and Consultant on EIAs, ASPI Consulting & Engineering, Baku)

ENVIRONMENTAL AND NATURAL RESOURCES PROTECTION

The Republic is the biggest among Republics of South Caucasus with its huge and various raw resources, as well as numerous ecological problems. The nature of Azerbaijan is responsible for exceptional diversity, unique character and abundance of natural resources. Out of world’s natural and climatic zones, there are nine of them in our Republic. Present day - flora numbers more than 4500 species of flowers, 240 of which are endemic. of the Republic numbers 18000 species, including 360 species of birds and 102 species of mammals. Unique is the hydro fauna of Azerbaijan. The fauna of the is represented by a great quantity of endemic species. It numbers 31, among which there are 7 species of of particular world’s importance. Regretfully, over the past 20 years the fish catch in the Caspian Sea has reduced more than 5 times. At the same time, the fries discharge into the Caspian Sea has dropped to 5 million fries a year. In order to preserve the biodiversity in the Republic there has been established a net work of particularly protected territories. There are 14 preserve areas and 20 reserves in the republic with total area of 478.000 ha which makes up 5% of the territory of Azerbaijan. It is planned to create other forms of particularly protected areas with restricted nature use, namely national parks. It should be noted that woods constitute 11% of the territory of the Azerbaijan Republic. For some time past, owing to the lack of natural gas in the Republic, the population of the country has to cut woods for warming. It’d be appropriate to note that areas under such valuable species, as chestnut, hazelnut, oak, etc. are catastrophically reducing. In this connection of particular importance is the restoration and reconstruction of small hydroelectric power stations in Guba and Gusar regions, Sheki region. In so doing, it’d be possible to substantially reduce felling. Today, it is regional wars and local conflicts that incur the greatest damage to the nature. Owing to past military conflicts, approx. 20% of the territory of the Republic is lost and about 1 million Azeri residents are refugees. Military actions led to the destruction of unique natural complexes of Caucasus minor. To remove consequences of such wars, it is essential, in the first turn, to draw up a global strategy of the environmental cooperation and protection, for this to happen, it is imperative to set up an international independent commission to carry out ecological audit in conflict areas. Both Azerbaijan and all the Caspian states are currently faced with the necessity of solving the ecological problems of the Caspian Sea. Note that the Caspian Sea, one of the most unique water reservoirs on the globe, is of paramount national economic importance. Having no access to the world ocean, the level of the Caspian Sea perpetually varies and thus creates substantial problems in coastal area to affect the . One of the major problems of the Caspian Sea is to prevent its pollution. It should be noted that the ecological state of the Caspian Sea is accounted for by influx of many rivers, including Volga River, which covers half of the European part of . Annually, up to 12 billion cubic meters of unpurified sewerage are discharged into the Caspian Sea, which poses a serious threat to the preservation of biodiversity and may result in the distraction of ecosystem. Also, upwards of 250 million cubic meters of unpurified sewerage are discharged into the Caspian Sea from the territory of the Azerbaijan Republic. Owing to the development of oil fields on Absheron peninsular, more than 10.000 ha of soils polluted with oil and contaminated strata waters have been put out of order. Today, it is crucial to purify these soils. Now, the Azerbaijan Republic, using WB credit, is engaged in realizing a pilot project of purification of black-oil polluted soils on Absheron peninsular. Conditions of free air in the biggest towns of Azerbaijan are notable for high level of contamination. Annually, upwards of 850.000 tons of harmful substances, including more than 450.000 tons of those from motor transport, are discharged into free air. These effluents include such matters as dust, soot, formaldehyde, sulphur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, carbon and metals. Note that 60% of effluents in non-industrial areas fall on Baku, Sumgait, Gandja, Ali- Bayramly. It’d be appropriate note that the oil industry is a leading industrial sector of our Republic. At present, Azerbaijan has concluded more than 15 agreements with foreign oil companies for the development and extraction of oil. These agreements are realized by joint efforts of Azerbaijanian and foreign experts. In considering that the Caspian Sea is e unique closed water reservoir, activities of ecologists and oil concerns focus on maximum reduction of negative impact on the Caspian area through using the most advanced technologies, applying safe chemical reagents and materials when exploiting oil fields. Since 1991, Azerbaijan has been faced with problems of transitional period. As is known, the transitional period is accompanied by numerous economic and ecological difficulties, which affect all the spheres of our society. Despite this, we are firm in advancing and making progress on this track. Contributing to our will is the co-operation with international organizations.

Impact of industrial and agricultural activities on environmental, water, soil and air conditions Prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the economy of Azerbaijan had been characterized by the development of heavy, oil and gas industry, agricultural sector which specialized on cultivation of cotton, fruit and vegetables. Note that objects of heavy industry as represented by big chemical, oil-chemical and metallurgic complexes had mainly been concentrated on Absheron peninsular, cities of Baku and Sumgait. It has to be kept in mind that oil and gas extraction had for more than hundred years been developed on the Caspian littoral. Unfortunately, entities concerned paid incredibly insignificant attention to the environmental protection, it was no mere coincidence that the population of large industrial centres was subject to high level of air pollution, oil production and refinery contributed to the substantial contamination of vast land zones and water areas of the Caspian Sea. Following the disintegration of the USSR, the economic situation changed for the worst and assumed disastrous character due to many factors. Especially was damaged our heavy industry. Capacities of many big industrial complexes reduced to 20%. Over the 1990 to 1995 period, the situation in oil and gas industry aggravated by 30%, output of industrial production essentially dropped as well. However, since 1996, the country saw an economic growth due to the development of oil sector and related branches of industry. It should be noted that the transitional period has had a favorable impact on environmental conditions. It was reduction of industrial and agricultural products that visibly reduced air pollution, industrial contamination of waters caused by the use of agrochemicals. However, toxic industrial waste, heavy metals, remainder of pesticides and oil contamination, as survived from the past periods, give rise to substantial ecological problems, while contamination arising from operating oil fields, refinery plants and electric power stations remains to be high. It is appreciable reduction of deliveries of natural gas that led to the felling of vast forest areas and resulted in damaging forest reserves of the Republic. Even worse, it is the increased exploitation of motor transport that leads to the further air pollution. Owing to the serious financial restrictions of the transitional period, some spheres of environment have also been appreciably damaged. Effect of oil pollution on environmental conditions of Azerbaijan is evident. In addition to the pollution of underground waters, oil pollution resulted in springing up unutilized soils, whose area on Absheron peninsular makes up approx. 10.000 ha. It should be noted that main reasons of air, water and soil contamination is the use of obsolete technologies, improper operations, lack of equipment to reduce the extent of pollution, the application of low quality raw material with high content of contaminating substances. When adjusted for the fact that the reduction of the output of industrial production led to visible improvement of environmental conditions, one can safely say that it is outdated enterprises that basically contaminate the environment. Thus, the use of obsolete technological equipment for the production chlorine-alkaline on the basis of mercury leads to the loss of mercury in huge quantities and as a result, the mercury is released into atmosphere, discharged together with sewerage, part of it being accumulated in solid waste of an enterprise. In turns of current production, the quantity of mercury-containing waste is expected to rise by 6.000-7.000 tons a year. There is already 200.000 tons of accumulated mercury sludge which contains 0.1-0.3% of mercury being stored to possibly contaminate underground waters and risk the leakage into the Caspian Sea. Ground deposits of coastal area of the Caspian Sea in the region of Sumgait are substantially polluted with unpurified run-offs. Conditions of free air in big tones are notable for high level of contamination. Commencing from 1993 due to the disintegration of the USSR, rupture of economic ties, most enterprises located in towns operate average 35% of their rated capacity which contributed to the reduction of discharge quantities, yet, the number of harmful ingredients remains to be at the same level (60-70 titles in Baku and Sumgait). Main reasons of the contamination of air basin of these towns are obsolete technologies and worn-out equipment not having been renovated over the past 40-50 years, sharp decline in the use natural gas as fuel at thermal electric power stations and schemes, use of high sulphuric mazut, non-fulfillment of stipulated air protection measures, lack of capital investments for nature protection. Main sources of air pollution are industrial objects, electric power stations and transport facilities. According to official sources, air pollution in 1995 made up 1.325.000 tons, of which 879,000 tons fall on stationary sources, remaining - on mobile sources. Note that stationary sources have so far discharged into atmosphere approx. 730.000 tons of carbon monoxide (carbon oxide (II) 23.000 tons of sulphur gas (sulphur oxide) (II), 32.000 tons of nitrogen oxide (II) and 19.000 tons of volatile organic hydrocarbons). Most industrial effluents in Azerbaijan are concentrated in the towns of Baku, Sumgait, Gandja and Mingechaur. Primary source of atmospheric pollution is the oil-extracting industry, which is most affected by the lack of compressor stations and related effluents of gasses into atmosphere. One of the most serious sources of air pollution are flame objects. Of no small share falls on transport which contaminates atmosphere as well. According to the current information, approx. 170.000 buses, lorries, other specialized transport facilities exert unfavorable impact on environment. Note that about 90% of the said transport is aged above 5 years, of which 40% is above 10 years. It is the utilization of mineral resources, particularly oil extraction and the construction of pipe-lines that greatly contributed to the contamination of approx. 30.000 ha of soil. The problems of degassing are especially urgent on Absheron peninsular where throughout centuries the oil has been extracted with no due regard for environmental protection. Huge oil lakes are scattered on the peninsular to incur great damage to the environment. Another sources of the contamination is the use of lead in petrol and pesticides which contain heavy metals. As a result of intensive industrial, economic and urban activities, there is currently a tendency toward annual expansion of technogenically affected, contaminating and cluttered soils with area exceeding 20.000 ha, including 12.000 ha of those oil-contaminated, upwards of 100.000 ha chemical waste-contaminated, 5.600 ha of channel disposal area, 1600 ha of quarry excavations. Main factors of the degradation of soil cover in the Republic are erosion, salinization, compaction, technogenic violations, humus leaching, worsening of water-chemical properties. Salinized soils are largely spread in Kura-Arax plane. Total area of salinized soils is upwards of 500.000 ha. It has to be kept in mind that water and wind erosion on the territory of the Republic most clearly manifests itself in the form of wash-out, blowing-out of particles from soil, gullies and land-slides. Area of erosion soils is 3.685.000 ha or 42,5% of the Republic’s territory, according to data available. Note that the specific weight by natural-economic regions ranges between 10 and 84%. Subject to erosion is 33,7% of ploughed fields, 68% of summer arable lands, 15% of haymakings, 16% of gardens, 24% of vineyards, 26% of woods. At present, hydrocarbon reserves of the Caspian Sea are being widely developed. At the same time, the risk of the pollution of waters with oil products, chemical reagents and drilling and extraction waste due to the intensification of offshore oil and gas extraction, deepwater operations, has immensely increased. One of the mane sources of sea contamination are drilling slime and mud, stratal waters, oil-containing stratal sand, etc. Volumes of drilling slime are substantial and require preliminary purification from chemical reagents and oil hydrocarbons, therefore their discharge directly into the sea results in pernicious consequences for water organisms. Serious economic problems are characteristic of agricultural sector of the republic due to the long-term use of fertilizers, pesticides, which led to the exhaustion and contamination of vast territories throughout decades-long intensive non-alternative production of monocultures. Ineffective irrigation measures on arable lands keep on visibly affecting the quality of soils in many regions. Currently, approx. 1,2 million ha of soil is under the effect of excessive salinization and rise in the level of ground waters. It is high concentration and excessive use of pastures and uncontrollable wood procurement that led to the erosion of about 2,7 million ha of soil. Unregulated felling on steep slopes, as well as excessive pasture of sheep and goats together with cattle resulted in sharp erosion.

State control over rational use of natural resources The Azerbaijan Republic is a secular state with Presidential form of government, a unitary state. It is divided into 67 administrative - territorial units (regions), including occupied region, as well as enclave - Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. Executive power on site - 67 town and regional - is governed by the head of executive power of the region. Local executive power is responsible for all economic and social matters, including production ones on its territory. The Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic is responsible for economic activity, executive power in charge of state management of national economy, consists of the heads of Ministries, State Committees and concerns. The Ministry of Ecology and Mineral Resources of Azerbaijan is a body of state control and management for environmental and mineral resources protection, set up according to the Decree of the Republic #485 of 23 May 2001 through amalgamating the State Committee for Ecology and Control over Nature Use, State Committee for Hydrometereology, State Committee for Mineralogy and Geology, production association «Azerles» and state concern «Azerbalyg». A newly created Ministry enjoys a wide network of control organizations on the entire territory of the Republic which are responsible for state control over compliance of all the standards and requirements on environmental protection, state control over the state and use of natural resources, as well as the national state environmental monitoring.

Consumption and quality of water The water is vital for life existence, so it is imperative to dispose water resources in quantity and quality to comply with major requirements of human as an pretext for health sustainability and development. Water resources of Azerbaijan are insignificant, their distribution and consumption is ineffective. Waste of water, this priceless natural resource, is huge. Thus, water losses in agricultural amount to 50%, which is 70% of total water utilize. Drinking water meets less than 50% of the population needs, it is no mere coincidence that many regions are in bad need of water. Note that the water used for supply of the population is taken from springs located on the entire territory of the Republic. With total area of the Republic of 86.600 sq. km and population of above 7 million, a share of each resident is 1.14.000 cub m a year from local water resources and aggregate 4.11.000 cub m a year when adjusted for the volume of water coming from contiguous territory. In this respect, the Azerbaijan Republic is ranked last in Transcaucasia. Depending on dividing into regions, as set forth by the institute «Bakgidroproekt named after E.Zhuk», to comply with hydrological and hydrogeological parameters, the entire territory of the Azerbaijan Republic is divided into 10 major zones: 1. Guba-Khachmaz; 2. Sheki- Zakatala; 3. Plateau; 4. Gobustan-Absheron; 5. Gandja-Qazakh; 6. Mil-Karabakh; 7. Arax; 8. Kura-Arax; 9. Lenkoran; 10. Nakhchivan. From this point of view, well provided with water resources is the first zone where, in addition to surface sources (river Kudialchay, etc.), there are many springs with ascending currents and output of 5 to 100 l/sec. Note that the water is sweet with good gustatory properties. Poorly used are waters in the second zone with the depth of bedding of sweet waters of approx. 50 m and capacity of about 10 cub m/sec. All other zones dispose, to an extent, of reserves of underground waters, including artesian wells. The depth of wells on Absheron amounts to 15-40 m. There are more than 4.000 wells with total discharge of about 2.9cub m/sec. The fifth zone is notable for cropping-out, occupies surface part of river Kura with capacity of underground run-off of 17-20cub m/sec. Deserving consideration is the fact that waters of underground horizon in , Mugan and Salyan steppes are strongly mineralized and unfit for water supply. Lenkoran zone has a run-off in the form of narrow belt along mountain-mass from river Astarachay to river Vilyashchay. The water is strongly mineralized, frequently contains methane. Sweet waters are located within the limits of cone drift of large rivers. Water intake from rivers, reservoirs, lakes, underground waters are carried out depending on type of a source and its capacity. These include catchment to intercept ground streams, coastal and tirol water intake, sub-river bed filtration galleries, etc. No purification is required when using ground waters. Often used are waters of kahrizes, which survived from the past centuries. Besides, there is presently a tendency toward the resumption of people’s source of water supply. Disposing of not large flow rate (approx. 5-15 l/sec), these sources contain high quality water and until recently have even been connected to a centralized water pipe-line (Gandja). Note that such large towns of the Republic as Julfa, Qazakh, Shamkir and Nakhchivan are still using sub-river bed waters of Alindinchay, Akstafachay, Djagirchay and Nakhchivanchay rivers respectively. Widely spreads in the town of Yevlakh are artesian wells. Towns (Sabirabad, Saatly, etc.) and populated localities along river Kura use primitively purified river waters for economic purposes. It should be noted that the centralized water supply is mainly typical for Absheron peninsular and water conduits, feeding the region are well known. These include the Kura water pipeline with flow rate of 12 cub m/sec; Jeyranbatan with 9 cub m/sec and naturally I and II Baku water pipelines with flow rate of 3 cub m/sec. Of interest is the quality of natural water, unaffected by various discharges. Depending on the composition of water there is a risk of endemic goiter disease in the area due to insignificant iodine content. In terms of insignificant or excessive content of fluorine there may develop such diseases as fluorosis, which leads to dental pathology and even destruction of osseous system. The concentration of fluorine in water (prophylaxis) makes it possible to prevent the widely spread disease of teeth-caries. Basins of large rivers Kura, Arax, etc. suffer from scores of harmful admixtures containing upwards of 40.000 organic matters. Influence of discharges is imperceptible, however, they destructively impact on human organism at genetic level. Extremely high level of copper and molybdenum have been discovered near the border with Armenia in the region of Shafaily (exceeding 1000 times maximum permissible concentration for copper and 2000-3000 times for molybdenum) and the level of pH - 2,4 along the transborder river Okhuchay, tributary of river Kura. Under such conditions, practically all the representatives of local flora and fauna perish. Aggravating the situation are industrial sources of contamination and agricultural pesticides, widely in the use in the Republic. Waters of river Kura are not in line with drinking water standards even after appropriate water processing. In considering that river Kura is a major source of drinking water in Azerbaijan, the situation is disastrous.

Negative effect and uneconomical approaches to the use and management of land Widely used and intensively progressing in Azerbaijan are geological processes, deteriorating conditions of land resources, which are very scanty. According to current statistical data, per capita are 0,2 ha of arable lands and 0,6 ha of agricultural lands. The greatest specific weight in the structure of agricultural lands falls on pastures - 51,6%; ploughed fields - 30,2%; perennials - 12,8%. Hay-mowings and deposits comprise 5,4%. Nearly one third of land resources of the Republic are unfit for agricultural. Irrigated land resources comprise 1.350.000 ha, including ploughed fields - 950.000 ha. The most widely spread type of erosion is the water one in the forms of plane, gully and irrigation. Economic damage caused by erosion processes is rather significant. Intensively spread are mud-torrent and landslide processes with areas of 310 sq. km and 420 sq. km respectively. Note that mud-torrents wash out annually more than 1,5 million cub m of fertile soil, while landslides incur damage not only to land resources of the country but objects of national importance as well. Disturbing the soil cover are anthropogenic factors, including chemical contamination using mineral fertilizers and pesticides. Area under chemical pesticides over the republic makes up above 840.000 ha. The most ecotoxicological region of the republic is the southeastern part of Kura- Arax lowland where there is a great concentration of pesticides in soil.

Measures to preserve soil and modernize land abundance Measures aimed at purifying soils call for not only huge funds but decades to realize. In order to prevent erosion processes, it is essential to carry out organisational, economic, agrotechnical and agromeliorative measures. Note that organisational, economic and agrotechnical measures are based on appropriate arrangement of crop rotation fields, selection of the size of land plots, observance of this norms and standards of watering, as well as strengthening of forest protection and conduct of full-scale restoration operations. With the purpose of preventing chemical contamination of soils, it is essential, together with the expansion of areas under biological safety, to provide for maximum ecologically safe standards of pesticide and mineral fertilizer application, use of organic fertilizers. Of top priority are measures aimed at recultivating disturbed soils, constructing modern refuse- processing plants, preliminary separating domestic garbage, equipping special places for storage and utilization of industrial waste, wider use of waste less production.

Comparison of the qualitative parameters of water resources

- - 2- 2+ 2+ + + 3+ Water HCO 3 CL SO 4 CA Mg Na +K Total Total Nitrites Ammo- Fe Requirement - resource mg/l mg/l mg/l mg/l mg/l mg/l mineralization Exchange NO 2 nium мг/л in biological + title mg/l capacity mg/l NH 4 oxygen mg-eqv./l мг/л mg/l

Kura River 305.000 88.7 370.0 130.0 36.0 142.5 1072.7 9.5 0.1 0.08 0.3 11.5 Jeyranbatan 183.0 53.17 246.9 80.0 36.0 70.0 669.1 7.0 0.05 0.08 0.25 10.8 Shollar 366.0 30.2 288.0 65.0 39.5 157.5 946.0 6.5 - - 0.10 -