Armenia continues to pollute Araz River with dangerous effluents from its territory
The Karabakh Economic Region (KER) contains 2 billion cubic metres of clean drinking water and is Azerbaijan’s largest water resource. Smart infrastructure is needed to manage this wealth, as the existing canals and water supply systems are completely destroyed. This was stated by Akper Askerov, deputy head of the Civil Hydrometeorology Service of the Ministry of Ecology of Azerbaijan, at a meeting with representatives of German construction companies.
Speaking at the conference of the German-Azerbaijani Foreign Trade Chamber on “New construction of water and sewerage infrastructure in the Karabakh region” with the participation of representatives of German companies: “Lutz-Jesco GmbH”, “Megger Germany GmbH”, “Herrenknect”, “Siemens AG Osterreich’, “Bioworks Verfahrenstechnik GmbH”, GuPont Water Solutions”.
“Water reservoirs are to be built to store drinking water and irrigate agricultural fields. Strict quality control of transboundary waters is required. Four times a year the Service performs measurements of substances in the rivers Ohchuchay and Bazarchay, which flow into the Araz from the territory of Armenia. The content of heavy metals and other wastes from Armenian mining industry in these two rivers exceeds the norm several times,” Askerov said.
At the same time, analyses of thermal and spring waters in the Kellbajar region showed that purity of water has not changed during the occupation. However, Armenians destroyed the infrastructure of delivering this water to populated areas where people lived and sanatorium-resort facilities were located before the occupation, Askerov continued.
Note that the Civil Hydrometeorology Service investigated 580 artesian wells in Aghdam region, water supply infrastructure of the new airport in Fizuli region, springs and wells in Shusha region. Also, the destruction of all water treatment and measuring devices in these territories by Armenians was revealed.
Since 2020, the Service has installed 11 new hydrological stations for analysing rain, waste and other waters in the KER. Work is ongoing, with new automatic stations to be installed in 2025 (5 stations) and 2026 (5 stations).
In Fizuli, this year, an aerostation for analysing air flows will be built near the international airport to launch aerostat probes,” Askerov said.