Azerbaijan develops a draft national action plan within the Stockholm convention on steady organic pollution, Trend reports.
A 3-day seminar on development of the draft national action plan started at the Ecology and Natural Resources on Tuesday. Attending the event were Husseyn Bagirov, the head of the Ecology Ministry, Valentin Ishenko and Martin Murin, the UNIDO experts, representatives of different ministries, state committees, companies and non-governmental organizations.
Bagirov noted that Azerbaijan had serious ecologic problems, which were unhurt from the former USSR. 33,000 hectares of Absheron peninsula polluted.15, 000 hectares of it polluted as a result of oil production. Liquidation of pollution requires hundreds of millions dollars.
Ishenko reported that the UNIDO rendered aid to the Ministry at development of the draft document, which will take 2 years. The seminar will focus on the Azerbaijan;s problem in this direction and proposals on their liquidation.
The Stockholm convention was adopted in 2001 and signed by 151 countries of world. It was ratified by 108 countries. Azerbaijan joined the convention in 2003.