BAKU: Armenia and Georgia continued polluting trans-border rivers

Azerbaijan Business Center
April 25 2009

Armenia and Georgia continued polluting trans-border rivers with
Azerbaijan for second 10-day term of this April

Baku, Fineko/abc.az. The National Environmental Monitoring Department
(Azerbaijan Ministry of Environment & Natural Resources) has conducted
monitoring for the second 10-day period of April 2009 to define level
of pollution in the Kura and Arax trans-border rivers.

The Ministry’s press service informs that the monitoring revealed that
water consumption for the reported period of April increased compared
with the first 10-day term.

`In particular, water consumption reduced by 28 cu m a second and
reached 239 cu m/sec that made 89% of 10-day norm,’ it was reported.

The monitoring also revealed multifold exceeding of the norm of
phenols and copper compounds in the Kura river on the border with
Georgia under trans-border pollutions.

`The cause of that is discharge of water without treatment from
industrial and stock-breeding enterprises on the territory of Armenia
and Georgia,’ it was reported.

The main water contaminants in Shikhli-2 point of Kura River are
phenols and copper compounds, content of which exceeded maximum
allowable coefficient 4-fold, in Agstafachay River 2-fold and
Agstafachay water storage 2-fold (phenols) and 3-fold (copper
compounds).

The monitoring also uncovered that content of phenols and copper
compounds in the Arax River on the border with Armenia exceeded the
accessible norm.

`In Goradiz point of Arax River on the border with Armenia content of
main pollutants ` copper compounds was exceeded 4 fold, in Bahramtepe
3-fold, and Shahsevan 1 two and three-fold,’ it was reported.

Oxygene regime in all points was in sanitary norm and ranged 6.11-7.93
mg/l.