Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend E.Huseynli / Over the recent ten years, the green areas in Azerbaijan's city of Sumgayt have increased by 100 h. In 1995 the green areas made up 854.5h, but in 2007 this figure made up 949.6h and the green area per capita equals 26 square meters, Active Head of Press Service of Azerbaijan's Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, Irada Ibrahimova, said on 9 November. Currently large works are carried out to increase green areas in the industrial districts of Sumgayt.
The report 'World's Worst Polluted Places' of New York organization 'Blacksmith institute' named Sumgayt in the top 10 of worst polluted cities of seven countries. In addition, the Green Party of Azerbaijan (GPA) accuses the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of absence of environmental protection in Sumgayt. However, according to Ibrahimova, the Ministry considers groundless the accusations of the Green Party.
"The Ministry has never stated that Sumgayt is free from the ecological problems. It is a large industrial city and has enough problems. The Ministry periodically holds inspections in the industrial enterprises which are considered as sources of ecological pollution in Sumgayt," Ibrahimova said.
In September to October the Ministry of Ecology held eight monitoring experiences in Azkompozit and Azeralmini JSC which function in Sumgayt and took measures to discover the breaks.
According to Ibrahimova, some 11 people have been administratively fined in amount of AZN 418.