Caspian Sea 2011

State of the Environment of the Caspian Sea

gas in the fields in western Turkmenistan rather than, as previously practiced, flared or emitted into the atmosphere. At present, this gas is either fed into the trunk gas pipeline or injected into oil beds to encourage extraction. In future, the plan is to reduce the emission of harmful substances into the atmosphere through the implementation of various environmental protection measures. These include the construction of new treatment facilities, modernization of production methods, replacement of old equipment and improved use of various new technological processes. 4.5 Waste Azerbaijan: Agricultural and industrial activi- ties plus the presence of open dumping sites have been identified as the main land-based factors in Azerbaijan leading to pollution of the Caspian Sea. Solid municipal waste: According to the Environ- ment Performance Review of Azerbaijan, there is at present a lack of information within the country con- cerning the disposal of municipal waste. However, more information is available about the situation in Baku, the capital. Waste collection is judged to be reasonably good in Baku - for example, no munici- pal waste is disposed of at illegal dump sites. The reporting system in other cities and rural areas is not reliable: The available data indicates that many illegal dumps exist throughout the country. However, the current state of affairs in municipal and industrial waste management in large indus- trial cities of Azerbaijan, including the Absheron peninsula, particularly Baku, has improved with adoption of “The Complex Plan of Measures for Improvement of Ecological Situation in the Re- public of Azerbaijan for 2006-2010”. Special waste bins have been placed in public waste disposal areas and the infrastructure required for the transportation of wastes has been established (CEP 2007b). According to the presidential Decree the newly established JSC “Tamiz Shahar” is put in charge of placement and disposal of the solid household wastes in the city of Baku, contributing to improvement of ecological situation .

Industrial waste: Since 2003-2004, focus has been given to hazardous wastes management in compliance with environmental standards. As a result, statistical data shows a decline in the the volume of stockpiled hazardous industrial wastes from 26.9 thousand tonnes to 11.2 thousand tonnes. Activities are being carried out on the clean-up of metal wastes (solid industrial waste) in Baku Bay. One of the significant actions is the removal of 16 sunken vessels with a total weight of 900 tons from Baku Bay (CEP 2007b). According to the results of the Baseline Inven- tory report of 2008, there were three industrial waste hot spots in Azerbaijan. Since then the first hot spot in Bibiheybatneft area has been re- moved: the lakes that were the source of danger were dried and about 100 ha of land was cleaned. The remaining two hot spots are: the oil-contami- nated rocky area on Pirallahi, Jilov and Gum Adasi islands and Sumgayit, a major Soviet era industri- al center containing more than 40 industrial and agricultural chemical manufacturing factories. In the Absheron peninsula area of Azerbaijan, there is widespread pollution from oil and oil products. In total, 21.3 thousand ha of land in the area is polluted with oil to varying extents: 10.1 thousand ha is polluted in lower layers or at aq- uifer level, and eight thousand ha is covered with oil, while oil is present elsewhere in water pools. These land areas are located out on the western part of the peninsula - from the east side of the cement mill in Garadag along a narrow strip of land to Pirallahi Island. The presence of oil pools in this area over many years has caused serious anthropogenic change in the environment and natural landscape (TACIS 2009). The most toxic elements on the Absheron pen- insula are B, Al, Pb, U, Se, Fe, C, Na and Mg. The main region in Azerbaijan, where land is either unused or is in need of recultivation, is on the Absheron peninsula: some of this land area is on the Siyazan-Sumgayit massif, while other land is in the Salyan and Neftechala regions. In these re- gions, areas of soils polluted with oil range from

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