Polluted Reservoir on Turkish Border Worries Armenia
By Yeranuhi Soghoian
Environment News Service
May 11, 2009
GYUMRI, Armenia – Armenian environmentalists fear the important
reservoir dividing their country from Turkey is increasingly polluted,
posing dangers to the health of people consuming crops grown from its
waters.
The Akhurian reservoir is a crucial asset to both Armenia and
Turkey. Holding 525 million cubic metres of water, it irrigates almost
104,000 hectares of agricultural land in both countries.
The reservoir, which entered into active service in 1980, straddles 20
kilometres of the state border in the middle reaches of the Akhurian
river.
Armenian researchers first raised the alarm after delving into the
ecosystem of the reservoir a few years ago. They say the water system
is polluted with heavy metals and different toxic materials.
But with no cooperation between Armenian and Turkish ecologists, they
fear there is little they can do about it.
The ecologists say the reservoir contains no self-cleaning mechanisms
that can either absorb or remove excess traces of heavy metals. These
move from one biological system to another, interacting with various
living organisms and having potentially dangerous consequences for
humans who consume them.
"Our investigation discovered small concentrations of heavy metals in
the reservoir that can’t be overlooked," said Levon Martirosian, head
of the of the Geophone Research Institute that carried out the survey.
"Heavy metals can intoxicate the cultivated vegetation through
irrigation water; these pollutants also accumulate in different fish
tissues."
Heavy metals and their compounds can penetrate into the human body
through mouth, skin and mucus membrane. They exit through the kidney,
liver, stomach, gut membrane, perspiratory glands and salivary glands,
impacting the organs as they do so.
A characteristic feature of mercury and lead poisoning is stomatitis,
complicated by gum erosion, ulcers and bleeding, while arsen and
copper poisoning more often results in gastric problems. Blood
poisoning is accompanied by hematocytolysis and anemia.
Martirosian says his team became aware of the problem in the reservoir
after a Swiss company bought a 60-hectare apricot orchard near the
reservoir a few years ago.
Intending to export the fruit, the company wanted packages with labels
designating the fruit an ecologically clean product.
For this purpose, they ordered an examination of the irrigation
water. And so, in 2002, environmental research on the ecosystem of the
Akhurian reservoir began.
>From the start, the Armenian specialists knew their survey would be
incomplete, because they had no means of finding out the quantity or
dynamics of harmful substances penetrating the reservoir from the
Turkish side.
Since the 1980s, Armenian and Turkish officials have met monthly from
spring till autumn in the border village of Jrapi to talk over the
issue of water and particularly the Akhurian reservoir. The village
was founded in 1974 with the construction of Akhurian water reservoir,
when two villages were merged and moved to the new location.
But these meetings solely concern the amount of water to be released
for irrigation, while other issues are not addressed.
Owing to the lack of official cooperation or sharing of environmental
information between ecologists, Martirosian visited Turkey in a
private capacity to sound out some contacts.
"I went to Kars for three times as a tourist in 2004 and 2005 because
it was impossible to organize an official visit connected with our
investigation," recalled Martirosian.
"I tried to find some environmental organization or stakeholders there
but it was useless," he said. "There wasn’t a single public
organization with which to start even informal cooperation."
Moreover, on his visit to Kars, Martirosian spotted some alarming
sights: a leather recycling plant in the town and a sugar factory on
the outskirts. The expert says he feared waste from those plants might
be flowing into the reservoir through the river Kars.
An additional area of concern is the amount of domestic garbage
flowing into the lake from the river Akhurian on the Armenian side.
The river Gyumri also carries sewage to the reservoir. The amount of
waste brought in by another river, the Kars, is not yet known.
Armenian ecologists want a more detailed survey of the entire
reservoir ecosystem, including surveys on the territory of neighboring
Turkey.
They want an investigation into the annual dynamics of the water,
micro-flora and fauna, as well as the local foliage and particularly
the cultivated vegetation areas irrigated by the reservoir.
The reservoir is now almost half a century old – fruit of the once
cordial relations between Turkey and the old Soviet Union.
A mixed Soviet-Turkish commission signed the agreement to construct
the lake on April 25, 1963. The agreement regulated the flow of four
rivers into the lake – the Akhurian, Kars, Karakhan and Chorli.
Seyran Minasian, head of the Laboratory Investigations Department of
the Environmental Impact Monitoring Centre, part of the Armenian
environment ministry, who took part in the survey of Akhurian
reservoir ecosystem in 2002, is more optimistic than some of his
colleagues.
He maintains that the extent of heavy metal pollution is not as
alarming as some say and that levels of concentration are not
dangerous.
But Minasian agrees that the Turkish government is unlikely to be much
concerned about pollution in the remote east of the country.
"We know the Turkish government carries out water monitoring but
prefers not to spend money on the eastern regions of the country," he
said.
"It’s obvious that the quantity, not quality, of the Araks and
Akhurian rivers water is what’s most important for Turkey."
The Armenian side, in turn, says that since 2006, at the request of
the environment ministry, the Environmental Impact Monitoring Centre
has been surveying the reservoir periodically.
But Minasian says these investigations cost money, and even richer,
developed countries only monitor water whenever it is necessary.
Armenian researchers say the issue of starting a dialogue with Turkey
on the reservoir, its maintenance and development, remains a primary
goal.
Artush Mkrtchian, head of the Caucasus Business and Development
Network Gyumri office, links the fate of the reservoir to the overall
issue of the closed borders.
He has been working in the field of Armenian-Turkish relations for
nine years, organizing programs aimed at creating dialogue between the
estranged peoples.
Mkrtcian has always believed the borders will re-open some day, mainly
as a result of European Union pressure on Turkey.
"Turkey’s long-standing attempts to become a member of the European
Union as well as Armenia’s own economic and national interests mean
that sooner or later they will open the borders," said Mkrtchian.
He notes that business cooperation between the two countries has
quietly grown in recent years. As one example of collaboration, he
cites an agreement hateched in 2007 between cheesemakers from Gyumri
in Armenia, Ninotsminda in Georgia and Kars in Turkey to market a
single product.
As a result of this cooperation, a new brand of "Caucasian" cheese was
launched in Gyumri in May 2008, whose label notes that it was produced
in all three towns. Producers from Georgia and Turkey came to Armenia
for the event.
Currently, there are similar plans to market a new brand of Caucasian
wine, involving vintners from Cappadocia in Turkey and the Ararat
Valley.
Artush Mkrtchian notes that trade between the two countries has always
been active, and is currently worth about US$100 million a year.
Mkrtchian says the problems concerning dialogues between businessmen
occur mainly when those businessmen have close ties to their
respective political structures.
As for the ecological problems, he believes their resolution hangs on
the success, or failure, of the current efforts to end the
Turkish-Armenian diplomatic impasse.
"Water resources are state property, which means that the problem
should be talked over by the governments of Armenia and Turkey," he
said.
"But these countries simply do not exist for each other
[diplomatically]. Hence, the problem will remain unresolved until the
establishment of diplomatic relations."
Levon Martirosian, of the Geophone ecological organization, says
international pressure on both sides remains the reservoir’s best
hope.
Steps should be taken to ensure the opening of a dialogue with Turkey
through the mediation of some international ecological organization or
other stakeholders. Lake Arpi, fed by thaws and four streams, is the
source of the Akhurian River. More than 100 species of birds have
been observed around this lake. (Photo courtesy WWF)
There have been several successful examples of international mediation
in environmental matters in the region in recent years.
Since 2006, for example, branches of the international conservation
organization WWF in Armenia and Germany and Armenia’s environment
ministry have been working on a program to protect the
Armenian-populated Samtskhe Javakheti region in Georgia, which
Armenians call Javakhq, and the Shirak region in Armenia. The program
is funded by the German government-owned development bank, KFW.
The program aims to maintain the biological diversity of the uplands
of the Javakhq and the Shirak regions and support local communities
through the creation of the Arpi Lake National Park.
Initially, three countries were involved in the program – Armenia,
Georgia and Azerbaijan. But as Azerbaijan refused to join, Turkey’s
participation is being discussed, because the Shirak region borders
also with Turkey.
Goyets Shuerholts, an international expert on land utilization issues,
says European countries are very interested in water protection issues
well beyond Europe’s borders.
"From an ecological view borders don’t exist, as the elements of the
natural world, including the wildlife, and flora and fauna, are in a
state of permanent flux," said Shouerholts.
He sees programs to set up so-called peace parks – national parks
lying on the borders of estranged countries, overlapping their
frontiers – as a means of "easing tension between the countries and
starting a dialogue.
"I think the opening of such a program concerning the Akhurian
reservoir would certainly promote the establishment of friendly
relations between the two countries."
may2009/2009-05-11-01.asp
(Note: This article was originally published by the Institute for War
& Peace Reporting Caucasus Reporting Service on May 8, 2009)
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/