TO BREATHE EASIER

In 2010, which President Ilham Aliyev has designated as a Year of Ecology, special attention will be paid to the settlement of urgent environmental problems that exist in Azerbaijan today. This step should be taken as the beginning of a specific campaign not just by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, but by other public and private organizations whose activities affect the environment one way or another. For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that currently almost all of these agencies are either revising their environmental policy or updating it with new priorities.

Rehabilitation, planting and reclamation

Thus, the Ecology Ministry's initial plan of large-scale action includes the rehabilitation of the ecological situation in the Abseron peninsula and a significant increase in the number of green plants in and around Baku. It is planned that the number of green plants in Abseron will be brought up to 10 million trees, and re-cultivation of land is under way. The implementation of the government programme, launched in 2005, to improve the quality of drinking water will be continued through the installation of new purifying stations on the rivers Kura and Araz. In addition, steps will be taken to reduce harmful industrial emissions into the atmosphere.

According to Minister of Ecology Huseynqulu Bagirov, today one of the most pressing environmental problems in Azerbaijan is the recycling of solid waste, and an incinerator plant is being built to solve the problem. The public is extremely concerned about the environmental situation in the village of Hovsan, where work is about to be completed to clear the sewerage discharged into the Caspian Sea. A similar project is being implemented in Lokbatan. Increased attention will be paid to the recycling of hazardous waste in the industrial zone of Sumqayit, while in Qaradag, Ganca and Mingacevir rehabilitation centres will be set up to recycle hazardous waste produced by the aluminium plant and other enterprises in this zone.

A great deal of work is being carried out in the scientific field to improve the environmental situation in the country. For example, as part of the Year of Ecology, the Geography Institute of the Azerbaijani National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) will combine environmental maps in an A3 full-colour illustrated atlas. According to the deputy director of the Geography Institute and corresponding member of ANAS, Ramiz Mammadov, the atlas will be published on different scales with a print run of 1,000 copies, and include 150 climate, hydrogeology, water, soil and geomorphology maps. According to the specialist, work to create ecological maps of Azerbaijan was carried out in cooperation with scientists from the State Land Committee. According to levels of environmental stress, a medical-ecogeochemical map of the country was drawn, for which the peculiarities of landscape types were studied. How does it work? Environmental and medical data are compared. For example, if mercury or some other dangerous substances are discovered, an analysis is made and causal relationships are identified to understand whether the ingredients found in the soil and air of the region are the main pollutants that trigger diseases. The atlas will also include a geomorphologic map and a map of eco-geographical zoning, which contains data on ecological and social threats and risks to the sustainable development of regions. By the way, the Geography Institute of ANAS will pay special attention to this activity in 2010. For many years, the institute has been conducting a survey aimed at identifying patterns of natural changes in Azerbaijan - eco-geographical features, natural resources, socioeconomic aspects and the ecological status of the Caspian Sea. In 2009, the Geography Institute, with funding from the German nature protection society BfN, completed a pilot project on the landscaping of the Sirvan National Park and the surrounding area of 75,000 hectares. A joint project with the EU on remote measurements of oscillations of the Caspian Sea through satellites and a multi-sensory study of its pollution were also completed. In 2010, it is planned to complete work on a joint project with NATO, which has already lasted three years, on the multidisciplinary analysis of the ecosystem of the Caspian Sea, the essence of which is a study of the Caspian Sea ecosystem by scientists from several countries as part of the global climate change.

More eco-investments

Improvements in the environmental situation in Azerbaijan have been one of the priorities of the State Oil Company (SOCAR) since 2007. In 2010, SOCAR also set a number of priorities, a list of which was announced last month by SOCAR's vice-president on environmental issues, Muxtar Babayev. It includes the clearing of oil-contaminated land, reduction of industrial waste to zero, reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, clearing of reservoir waters and their return to wells, clearing of the Baku bay from worn-out metal, wood and concrete structures, environmental management, monitoring, research, gardening, etc. Particular attention in the current year will be paid to the cleaning of layer waters at onshore deposits which have been operating for more than 160 years, for which SOCAR intends to purchase new equipment. This means that in 2010, SOCAR will increase investments in environmental projects. So, if in 2007 the country's main oil agency invested 22 million manats in environmental projects, including in the construction of relevant facilities, in 2008 investments reached 28.5 million manats. In 2009, SOCAR's environmental investments increased to 50 million manats. Most of the funds were spent on the purchase of environmental equipment, changing the technology mode of SOCAR enterprises and clearing of contaminated land and water. "This year the figure will be at least at the level of 2009," said Babayev.

In 2010, SOCAR will complete a major environmental project related to the establishment of an ecological park on an area of 9.3 ha belonging to the Tagiyev oil and gas extraction department. "200,000 trees will be planted in this area," said Babayev. He also emphasized that the ecological park will operate facilities generating electricity from solar and wind energy. It is planned to collect rare relic and endemic species of plants here, as well as introductive exotic trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. A modern greenhouse of 50 to 100 metres, sections growing seeds, seedlings, an arboretum, as well as a warehouse and infrastructure for the supply of biologically active monomolecular water, an underground water depot, etc. will also be set up here. The external green wall of the park will consist of 3-4 rows of Eldar pine, eastern plane trees, pyramidal cypress and European ash. Eldar pines, European olive trees, evergreen cypress, Salix alba, white mulberry, oleaster, acacia, paulownia, pomegranate, cherry and a number of other trees will be planted here as well.

Speaking about the work that has already been implemented, Muxtar Babayev stated, inter alia, that to this day, in the Baku village of Bibi Heybat, SOCAR's environmental department, in collaboration with sister organizations, has cleared 230 hectares of land from oil, metal, wood and concrete structures and has planted 50,000 trees. Since 2005, SOCAR has been implementing a programme to reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere as part of a modified technological scheme. This resulted in the reduction of waste at the deposits Gunasli and Oil Rocks with a volume of 420,000 tonnes in the carbon dioxide equivalent. In the future, carbon dioxide emissions from these two fields will be reduced by 450,000 tonnes. To reduce exhaust gas emissions by vehicles, SOCAR has established three measuring points - in Sabayil, Sabuncu and Suraxani districts of Baku where about 5,000 cars have been checked for compliance with environmental standards. The vice-president of SOCAR for environmental affairs also said that SOCAR strictly controls the quality of oil products made in the country, and today it fully complies with the Euro-2 standard. "Certainly, we aim to further improve the quality of petroleum products and can produce them at the level of the Euro-3 and Euro-4 standards. But SOCAR aims to proceed to the Euro-5 standard at once," Babayev said. In the area of reducing and recycling industrial emissions, SOCAR's environmental department is working to identify the range of sludge. If earlier the list of emissions from oil production included 32 types of sludge, now the list has been replenished. This is being done to develop a new system of information and disposal of emissions from oil production.

As for other work, in 2010 SOCAR is ready to continue to clear the Caspian Sea from the metal constructions formerly used for oil and gas production, and the company is ready to become an authorized organization to clean the Baku bay. "We can involve our subsidiaries Ecol Engineering and SOCAR-ASM in this work," noted Babayev. The company owns a lesser part of the remains of the infrastructure and vessels in the bay. "In 2009, we extracted 42,000 tonnes of metal from the Caspian Sea basin, and in 2010, we plan to extract 82,000 tonnes of metal constructions," Babayev said. To implement these plans, SOCAR aims to introduce new technology. In particular, new vessels are needed for clearing the Baku bay.

In conclusion, it is worth noting that in late 2010, Azerbaijan will host an international environmental exhibition, which will showcase the achievements of different countries in the environmental field.