"ECHO": OUR WATER – WAISTS OF ARMENIA AND GEORGIA

R. Orujev
Demaz.org, Azerbaijan
Sept 26 2007

Azerbaijani scientists are getting ready for international conference
dedicated to problems of pollution of river Araz In near future
international scientific conference dedicated to the problem of
ecologic state of the second river of the South Caucasus – Araz –
will be held in Nakhchivan. Director of the institute of Geography
of National Academy of science of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Budag
Budagov, informed "Echo" about it.

"Conference will be dedicated to the issue of all possible sources
of pollution of Araz river", scientist underlined. Mainly Armenia is
responsible for this. For example, Turkey, Iran and Azerbaijan have
no industrial objects on this river. But Armenia has Mezamor atom
electric power station, into which all waists of Yerevan and other
Armenian towns situated on Araz river are flowing. Broadly speaking
Armenia throws all its dirt in the river Araz. Moreover they have
molybdenum field in Kajaran situated in Sisian region. And there huge
throwing of harmful materials into Araz is taking place. Molybdenum
is a heavy metal. Accordingly to Budagov scientists from Turkey and
Iran will also join their Azerbaijani colleagues at the conference.

"Armenia, responsible for current consequences, won’t be presented
at the Conference". Scientist stressed that main organizer of the
event will be chief of Geography department of Nakhchivan University,
Nazim Bababeyli. "This specialist personally tested water of the
river starting from its source in Turkey, says B. Budagov. He has
got many factual materials. He had them taken from those parts of
Araz situated close to Armenian frontier with the help of Turkish
organizations. This helped to define exact sources of pollution of
river water. I personally examined them recently September 14 being
in Nakhchivan. The very place of waists flowing into river is clearly
seen on the screen. And waists are not dissolved in the water at once,
they are flowing as separate line and in some time they are dissolve
with water".

The purpose of upcoming conference is to make public all data on
pollution of Araz available in Azerbaijan, the extent of damage it
causes to all living in the river and everyone who use the water,
director of the institute of Geography says. "And damage is caused
to population of Azerbaijan as after Armenia only we use this water.

Araz is the main inflow of the main water artery of the Caucasus –
Kura river. And the major part of Baku is supplied by water from
Kura. This poisoned water comes from our taps This is absolutely
non-drinking water, but currently we don’t have any way out. Kura
is directly poisoned by such Georgian cities as Tbilisi, Gori and
many inhabited locations. That is all sewerage flows in Kura. Nobody
regards this matter seriously though it negatively affects health of
Baku residents. And it should be mentioned that half of Azerbaijani
population concentrated in Baku. Today Araz and Kura can be named
cesspit. And besides people’s health the extent of damage caused
by this activity to living organisms and vegetation shouldn’t be
forgotten. For example, in Nakhchivan there is a reservoir situated
on Araz river. There are fishes and other organisms with different
diseases". Recently mass media informed that local epidemiologists
measured water of Araz to define its radio-activity and clarified
that this level 7 times exceeds the norm. However Center of Hygiene
and Epidemiology of the Health Ministry of Azerbaijan informed "Echo"
that their specialists didn’t carry out such analyses recently. On
the other hand director of the Institute on radiation problem of the
National Academy of Azerbaijan, Adil Garibov, declared for "Echo" that
in Azerbaijan no structure but special laboratory in his institute has
necessary equipment for measuring radiation level of water. Information
spread earlier by mass media doesn’t reflect the fact. "The year before
the last our specialists carried out radiation related researches on
Araz river jointly with specialists of International Atomic Energy
Agency. It was clarified that radiation level is in line with the one
of drinking water. The same measures were made by our laboratory this
year, and results were the same.

There may be any sort of pollution in Araz but radioactive. Armenia
itself can’t be interested in throwing dangerous waists of electric
power station in river as international organizations may learn about
that and country may face tough sanctions".