"Eh?" is not very informative. Besides it a registered Canadian
trademark. Are you Canadian?
Overdevelopment causing pollution and overfishing caused such a great
decline in sturgeon stocks that decisive action finally had to be
taken-in 1989 I believe. The linking of the Caspian to the Black Sea
via canals by the Soviets caused a huge increase in large vessels
worsening the situation. Of course the situation has not improved
during recent years since the counter-revolution. Some of the
problems are related to the huge fluctuations in level of the sea.
Flooding is a huge problem at present. I thought you would recognise
oil development, now increasing as an obvious ecological threat for
the Caspian. But you never fail to amaze me. The West is now busy
helping the region catch up with the west even faster.
Cheers, Ken Hanly
Pollution in the Caspian Sea, Enough of Negligence
San'at-e-Hamlo Naghl,
Scientific, Technical & Economic (Monthly)
June 1995, No. 138
Page: 8
By: Homayoun Zarqaei
Word Count: 1526
Summary:
According to a report released by the Russian government, the amount
of pollutants pouring into the
Caspian Sea exceeds four million tons annually, a quantity that is
equal to 25 percent of Russia's total
sewage.
An international meeting was held in Tehran on April 22, 1995, to
study measures for protecting the
Caspian Sea. Attended by countries neighbouring the Caspian Sea, the
participants issued a statement
wherein they signified the commitment of the littoral states to
safeguard the environment of the largest sea
in the world.
Text:
The steadily worsening environmental situation and the absence of
comprehensive and up-to-date
regulations to protect the Caspian Sea, aroused concern and led to
the intervention of foreign and
international experts.
Government officials from the Caspian Sea littoral states,
representatives from the World Bank and ten
officials from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) held a
meeting at the State Management
Organization in Tehran on April 22, 1995.
Prior to the meeting, some of the participants visited for three
weeks, different areas along the Caspian
coast and had a first-hand look at the environmental bottleneck.
Afterwards, the conferees issued a
statement and suggested a number of guidelines to protect the largest
sea in the world. The communique
urged the littoral states not to remain indifferent to the
environmental deterioration and that they considered
it an international obligation to look after the preservation of the
Caspian Sea.
Attending the conferences were officials from organizations that were
concerned with ecology and
environmental protection in Russia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.
There were also delegates from the
Iranian Foreign Ministry, the Shipping Organization and the
Environment Protection Organization.
The participants expounded on the worsening pollution of the Caspian
and emphasized the need for
improving the condition of stream-like canals lining the seashore and
which carry industrial waste into the
water, as the existing situation adversely affected the living
conditions in the coastal towns and spoiled the
diversity of marine life.
The meeting called for the adoption of a program that could
revitalize the ecosystem in the region.
According to UNDP experts, the said program required economic and
environmental long-term investment.
They upheld the implementation of such a program as top priority and
consistent with the conservation of
the environment. They further expounded that the utilization of the
resources of the Caspian Sea
necessitated the formulation of methods that would avoid jeopardizing
the marine ecosystem.
Prior to the institution of a specific plan of action, however, a
number of measures were recommended, as
follows:
1. The living space of the people who live in the coastal areas
should be protected against the fluctuations
in sea level.
2. The further worsening of the Caspian Sea environment should be
prevented by stopping the disposal of
contaminants into water.
3. Rehabilitation of the living species and improvement in living
conditions to curtail the extermination of
marine life.
4. Implementation of long-term schemes that would ensure the
conservation of food resources for present
and future generations, especially as these resources serve as the
only means of sustenance of indigenous
families.
The statement said: "The Caspian Sea littoral states are now aware
that they can take positive steps to deal
with the problem. They have come to terms with their commitment
before the world community to
conserve the environment. The Caspian Sea contains some of the rarest
animal species in the world."
During the three week-long stays of the foreign experts in Iran, the
outline of a program was prepared,
which would become binding for the signatory states when the World
Bank and the Global Environment
Facility (GEF) granted the necessary financial credits.
In 1993, the UNDP in Tehran submitted a proposal to its headquarters
in New York titled "The Caspian
Initiative." Negotiations with other specialized organizations of the
U.N. and with the Caspian states,
resulted in the dispatch of a 10-member delegation on a mission that
looked into the situation and attempted
to find practical ways to curb the contamination of the Caspian Sea.
The move was the incipient stage for
cooperation between the littoral states, and environment officials of
regional countries worked toward the
promulgation of coordinated measures that would maintain the
ecosystem in a balanced state.
The environmental issues confronting the region could be classified
into three categories. First, the
fluctuation in the water level of the sea, which results in flooding
and the encroachment of tidal waves.
Second, the problems that emanate from human activities along the
coastal areas; and third, the pollution
on the seaside which results from the disposal of sewage into the
sea. Moreover, the desertification in the
eastern coast and deforestation in the southern and western coastal
areas had been destroying the variety
that existed in the environment.
Meanwhile, the exploration for oil, the passage of ships and the
acceleration in sea transportation were also
contributing to the environmental deterioration. On the other hand,
unorthodox fishing practices and the
rising level of the sea were inflicting serious damage to port
facilities, residential areas and farming lands.
The other sources of pollution were shipping operations, the disposal
of ballast water and other waste
materials from ships and oil tankers, as well as the chemicals and
different contaminants that were the
offshoots of oil and gas exploration activities in the region.
These factors, together with the exploding population in the coastal
towns, have placed the ecosystem of
the region in jeopardy and the pollution spreading through the area
has reached a dangerous point.
Protecting the environment requires huge investment by the
governments of the littoral states, at a time
when oil companies are busy setting up jetties, oil rigs and oil
terminals.
The exploratory operations in the Caspian Sea for oil that are
ongoing in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, are
aggravating an already perilous situation for aquatic lives. For
instance, the oil spills in the area are
threatening the ruin of microorganisms inhabiting the sea.
Though the population of various fish species has not been affected
extensively, what is alarming are the
cancerous substances that are deposited in the fish and this is a
vital problem that is consistent with the oil
pollution in the Caspian Sea. The hydrocarbon that is found in
petroleum and natural gas is poisonous for
humans who consume the fish, which are bred in the waters having one
milligram of such materials.
The 400 species of marine lives that are part of the life support
systems for human survival, whether
directly or indirectly, are being compromised by the environmental
degradation. One of the fish species
from which caviar is taken and therefore has vital economic
importance to the five Caspian states, is now
threatened with extinction. Sea birds have also suffered from the oil
pollution as the poisonous substances
contaminate their bodies while the birds wash themselves.
The water level of the Caspian Sea has likewise undergone
considerable changes, but haphazard attention
has only been given to the phenomenon so far. In the mid-1970s, the
water height in the Caspian Sea was
at its minimum. During the past 15 years, however, the volume of
water in the largest sea of the world has
been on the rise, causing floods in the five littoral states of Iran,
Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and
the Russian Federation.
The ascending level of the sea has forced inhabitants of the coastal
towns, who were mostly engaged in
farming activities, to flee their places of abode. The flooding
catastrophes have displaced thousands of
settlers and laid to waste the investments that have been made by the
industrial sector.
The Caspian Sea, A Strategic Region
The Caspian Sea has captured the attention of policy makers in the
littoral states as it is a strategic area that
holds geographical and political importance. It has also helped in
setting up international relations between
the east and the west.
The sea is bounded by Turkmenistan in the east, Kazakhstan in the
north, the Russian Federation and
Azerbaijan in the west and Iran in the south. Though it has been
depicted in the geographical maps as a
landlocked body of water, the channels that have been built link the
Caspian Sea to international waters.
The Volga-den channel was built in Russia to join the Caspian to the
Black Sea, in order that ships could
reach international waters via the said route. Almost 10,000 ships
traverse the Caspian Sea annually
including tankers, cargo ships, passenger vessels and trawlers.
According to an official report released by the Russian Federation,
Russia disposes 25 percent of its
sewage or some 40 million tons of pollutants to the Caspian Sea. The
wastes are even quite noticeable to
inspectors. This malpractice has significantly disturbed the regular
cycle of the life in the area.
The five littoral states, three of which are newly-independent, have
agreed to hold regular meetings in order
to formulate regulations to protect the environment of the Caspian
Sea and take practical action against
those jeopardizing a vital mainstay for the survival of mankind.
Mark Jones wrote:
> Ken Hanly wrote:
> > the desire to catch up and surpass the
> > West produced
> > some ecological disasters such as the Caspian Sea among others.
>
> Eh?
