(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 23. Indicators of pollution in Azerbaijan's Okhchuchay River are being
systematized, the leading researcher at the Institute of Soil
Science of the Ministry of Science and Education, a member of the
working group on the Okhchuchay River, Subahat Isgandarov said
during a media tour in Zangilan, trend reports.
According to him, the working group on the Okhchuchay
River had been conducting environmental monitoring of the river and
adjacent territories for almost a year. The ecological monitoring
was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Ecology and
Natural Resources, the Food Safety Agency, a number of research
institutes of the Ministry of Science and Education, Azersu, and
other organizations.
'The monitoring was carried out in two directions – on
physicochemical and biological indicators. The primary result of
the monitoring is that the main pollution sources are mining and
household waste generated in the vicinity of the city of Gafan,' he
said.
Isgandarov noted that all degrees of contamination
were identified as a result of the monitoring. The main scope of
work was related to the study of physicochemical indicators of
pollution. Later, biological studies were also carried out.
'We have started the systematization of indicators of
physicochemical pollution. It was determined that the indicator of
pollution with both heavy metals and household waste is quite high.
This gives grounds to conclude that Okhchuchay is being subjected
to deliberate environmental terror by Armenia,' he added.
'This is done in order to not let us use water from
the river. However, having systematized all the obtained
indicators, mainly the results of physicochemical indicators, we
have developed the fundamental principles of the methodology for a
certain improvement of the water of the Okhchuchay River and, most
importantly, for its use for agricultural purposes,' Isgandarov
said.
He noted that when developing the fundamental
foundations of the methodology, they mainly used the experience of
German researchers as well as the American National Standards
Institute.
The Okhchuchay River flows through Armenia and
Azerbaijan. The situation with the river is close to an ecological
disaster due to the dumping of waste from Armenian mining
enterprises into it.
According to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP),
Armenia's mining development in the region caused“chemical
pollution of water, soil and biota” in river habitats, with
hundreds of fish found dead in the Okhchuchay River and several
protected fish and amphibian species threatened.
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