(MENAFN- AzerNews)
By Orkhan Amashov
The ongoing reckless pollution of the transboundary Araz River
by Armenia's mining industry remains unaddressed. The subject is by
no means new, neither is the concern, which has been voiced on a
countless number of occasions to no avail.
Azerbaijan, on an official level, has long defined this pattern
of behaviour as an 'ecological terror'. Iran, no lesser sufferer
from Armenian negligence to this effect, has also raised official
objections, which have gone unheeded. However, there is a far more
consequential role that Tehran, given its warm relations with
Yerevan, could play and this mandates proactive involvement in
fixing the issue, the unresolved long-term ecological implications
of which are too hideous to contemplate.
Armenia has a proven track record of neglecting environmental
standards by letting its mining industry treat the Araz River as a
depository for waste and the worst of sludge. The heavy metal
release from the enterprises based in Kafan and Kajaran, located in
the southern part of the country, together with the discharge of
sewage from these districts are key elements of the disastrous
environmental situation on the ground. The flow of pollutants from
the copper-molybdenum facility in Kajaran to the Okchuchay River
and the gold deposit in Agarak to the Kharchevan, both rivers being
tributaries of the Araz River, form another aspect of the bigger
picture.
Over the years, this callous disregard for the environment has
also been supported by egregious foreign companies. For instance,
the German enterprise Cronimet is still very active in Armenia's
mining industry, having its share in contributing to the
life-threateningly high levels of copper, molybdenum, manganese,
iron, zinc and chromium in the Okchuchay River.
Present juncture
Although the dire ecological situation caused by Armenia is an
ongoing issue, it has assumed a heightened significance due to
several developments. After the victory in the Second Karabakh War,
Baku has resumed its effective control over the entire borders with
Iran and Armenia, allowing it to conduct the necessary examination
of water samples and to determine the current extent of this
calamity.
Over the past three years, Iran has also raised its concerns
without being able to achieve anything tangible, despite having
good relations with and concomitant leverage with Yerevan. In
November 2019, there was an attempt to address the issue through an
intergovernmental working group, but nothing eventuated from its
labours, which seem to have focused on the articulation of this
concern, without going into any detailed practicalities.
In May, Iran's Chief Prosecutor, during his Yerevan sojourn,
expounded on the criticality of the disaster and referred to a
special joint committee tasked with addressing the matter. Then
there was a meeting between the Ecology Ministers of the two
countries within the framework of the 'Cooperation for a Better
Ecology' conference, which also looked into the situation
pertaining to the Araz River.
A few days ago, the head of the East Azerbaijan province of
Iran, Abedin Khorram, in his meeting with Armenia's Ambassador to
Iran Arsen Avakyan expressed his concerns.
Therefore, given this unfolding environmental crisis, Baku's
augmented abilities to conduct its own research, by virtue of the
resumption of control along the transboundary river's polluted
segments, and increasingly disastrous implications for Iran, which
Tehran, for all its desire not to upset relations with Yerevan
cannot overlook, it seems the present juncture provides a nearly
optimal critical mass for robust actions to be taken.
Unadulterated recalcitrance
Armenia's mode of behaviour is not in conformity with the
Convention 'On the Protection and the Use of Transboundary
Watercourses and International Lakes', otherwise known as the Water
Convention, to which Yerevan refused to be a party over the years,
unlike Azerbaijan, which ratified it in 2000.
Armenia has repeatedly and obstinately refused to change its
practice of sending industrial waste originating in its heavy
industry facilities to Okhcuchay and then to the Araz River. It has
also failed to install water-treatment mechanisms, despite numerous
sensible offers, one being from German Ambassador to Azerbaijan
Wolfgang Manning a couple of years ago.
Ecology recognises no boundaries, but its ramifications impact
the whole of our shared humanity. Experts in the field have long
determined that river pollution is never circumscribed to its
immediate locality, with its contaminating impact pervading a wider
ecosystem.
Neil Watson, a well-known British journalist, commented:“This
ecologically unfriendly approach flies in the face of reason and
current international policies. The Armenian authorities and their
supporters clearly believe in the 'not in my backyard' approach.
However, a river represents our collective backyard, and the
endangered humanity is our collective future.”
In fact, the pollution of the Araz River is not merely about its
impact on drinking water or agriculture, but its devastating
implication for fauna and flora and for human health leading to
deadly diseases engendered by increased toxicity.
This is not just threatening for Azerbaijan or Iran, but also
for the whole South Caucasus and even the Caspian Basin countries
if one looks at the disaster's import from the guise of a long-term
assessing ecologist. It is imperative that Iran plays an increased
role in persuading Armenia to adopt the terms defining the basic
environmental standards pertaining to transboundary waters.
The article published in Tehran Times in November 2019 suggested
that the joint research conducted between Tabriz University and
Iran's Ministry of Agriculture found that the river was polluted
with heavy metals and established the presence of a deadly
concentration of pollutants. Nevertheless, the information was not
revealed to the public for diplomatic reasons.
The question that happens to be of the utmost significance now
is whether Iran will rise above its excessive focus on diplomatic
niceties and step in a genuinely robust way to address the issue
endangering its and the region's eco-security.
As for Baku, three separate courses of actions could be pursued.
The first is to encourage Tehran to be proactive in using its
leverage vis-a-vis Yerevan. Secondly, it might be judicious to
incorporate the dire ecological situation involving the Araz River
into the nascent Azerbaijani-Armenian Peace Process, as an
auxiliary item. Thirdly, however banal and cliched it may sound,
there may also be some sense in further increasing international
awareness of this calamity.
The cumulative impact of these concurrent tracks may have a
better chance to have a bearing on the state of affairs. Iran must
face up to the impact of its environmental decisions and act now,
for the greater good of humankind.
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