[Index]
UNECE examines how Azerbaijan is coming
to grips
with its environmental problems
Geneva, 15 March 2004 - Serious environmental
problems persist in Azerbaijan after more
than a decade of independence. Some 10,000
hectares of land around its Absheron peninsula
has been contaminated as a result of oil and
gas exploration and exploitation. The contamination
affects agricultural land and even groundwater.
This is one of the environmental
problems highlighted in the Environmental
Performance Review of Azerbaijan, which
the United Nations Economic Commission for
Europe (UNECE) has just published.1
In addition, hazardous waste
from industrial operations in and around the
city of Sumgayit continues to be a threat
to public health. Although many industries
have now closed down or are operating well
below capacity, their waste, including 200,000
tons of sludge containing mercury, remains.
Some 8,000 tons of obsolete pesticides, including
DDT, are also stored in unsatisfactory conditions
near the capital, Baku.
Overfishing and poaching
are depleting fish stocks in the Caspian Sea,
particularly the valuable sturgeon. But the
lack of waste-water treatment is also polluting
the Caspian Sea and threatening its biodiversity.
Moreover, run-off from irrigated fields is
polluting rivers with nitrogen and other chemicals.
However, the Environmental
Performance Review of Azerbaijan points
out that the country is taking its environmental
problems seriously and that it has set up
a Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources,
drawn up a National Environmental Action Plan
and adopted a Law on Environmental Protection.
The Review also
calls attention to the efforts Azerbaijan
is making to clean up contaminated sites (e.g.
Sumgayit’s five-year ecological programme),
build facilities to store hazardous waste
in line with international standards and protect
its biodiversity. Azerbaijan also has an active
environmental NGO community with whom the
Ministry has established a regular dialogue.
For more information about this publication,
please contact:
Mary Pat Silveira
UNECE Environment and Human Settlements
Division
Palais des Nations, office 338
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Phone: +41 (0) 22 917 13 15
Fax: +41 (0) 22 917 01 07
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: http://www.unece.org/env/epr/welcome.htm
1 Environmental Performance Review # 19: Azerbaijan
– Sales # E.04.II.E.2 – ISBN 92-1-116888-0
– US$ 35.
Ref: ECE/ENV/04/P06