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.