BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept. 21
By Khumay Aghajanova - Trend:
During the Armenian occupation of the Azerbaijani lands, the mineral resources of Azerbaijan were plundered, Trend reports, referring to the statement of Deputy Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Vugar Kerimov stated at the event on the topic "The state of the environment and natural resources in the Eastern Zangezur and Karabakh economic regions".
Some 52 deposits of gold, silver, copper, mercury, various building materials, underground water, and thermal mineral waters were exploited and looted during the occupation, the Deputy Minister said.
Eastern Zangezur and the Karabakh region are particularly rich in water resources, he noted.
"There are 14 main rivers, 9 reservoirs, 7 lakes, and natural mineral springs of ecological importance in these territories. The 4 main transboundary rivers between Azerbaijan and Armenia - the Araz, Basitchay, Bargushadchay, and Okhchuchay remained outside environmental control. Thus, it was impossible to obtain accurate information about the state of these basins for a long time. The monitoring results showed that these rivers are extremely heavily polluted with heavy metals," he said.
The Zangezur copper-molybdenum and Kafan copper-ore plants on the territory of Armenia pollute the Ohchuchay River with untreated production waters, as well as with sewage generated in the cities of Kafan and Gajaran.
"The riverbed has turned into an environmental disaster zone. Excessive pollution of the Okhchuchai River has led to the mass destruction of fauna species. There was no maintenance of the Sarsang reservoir during the occupation, which turned it into a source of potential threat to 40,000 people living in nearby territories. In winter, as a result of the water supply from this reservoir, settlements, agricultural plots, communication lines were flooded. In summer, water was practically not supplied, so there was a shortage of it and serious problems for watering the sown areas," the Deputy Minister added.