By Azernews

Umayra Taghiyeva, the head of the  Ecology and Natural Resources Ministry's National Hydrometeorological Service, has stated that international organizations should take action in response to Armenia's pollution of the Okhchuchay River, which connects Armenia and Azerbaijan, local news sources have reported.

She made the remarks during a media tour of the liberated Zangilan region.

To recap, the ministry has repeatedly urged the international community to intervene to stop Armenia's ongoing ecological terror against Azerbaijan.

Tagiyeva said that the ministry regularly updates international organizations on the situation and publishes data on the river's contamination levels.

“Armenia regularly pollutes the Okhchuchay River with heavy metals. The highest levels of pollution were recorded from January through March and from June through August. A high concentration of pollutants in Okhchuchay was found mainly in its upstream near the border with Armenia,” Taghiyeva stressed.

She emphasized that excessive levels of heavy metal contamination devastate the ecological and biological richness of the river.

“According to the results of average annual studies, in the upstream of Okhchuchay (Burunlu village), the content of ammonium exceeded the maximum allowable norm by 3.4 times, manganese - by 3.1 times, iron - by 1.5 times, nickel - by 5.5 times, cadmium - 3.4 times, and molybdenum - 1.9 times,” Taghiyeva underlined.

The wastewater from Armenia's copper-molybdenum facilities, Gafan and Gajaran, has polluted the river. Without treatment, wastewater is dumped straight into the river, resulting in heavy metal contamination, Taghiyeva explained.

She added that 58 monitorings were conducted to assess the river's condition between 2021 and 2022.

"The samples were taken from three different directions of the river. More than 150 water samples and more than 180 samples of bottom sediments were taken. On the basis of these samples, a physical and chemical analysis was carried out,” she said.

Taghiyeva underlined that the analysis discovered that the level of river pollution is 5-7 times higher than the norm.

“Unfortunately, its pollution continues today. The level of heavy and other metals in the water is currently also 5-7 times higher than the norm," she added.

Taghiyeva stated that the Ecology and Natural Resources Ministry will install 10 automatic hydrometeorological stations, which will be equipped with special sensors, on the Basitchay, Okhchuchay, Bergushad and Araz rivers in Karabakh.

"The stations will automatically continuously determine the level of river pollution online. Both international organizations and local structures will be able to receive information online about the level of river pollution with their help," Tagiyeva said.

The Okhchuchay River, an 83-kilometer-long left tributary of the Araz River, has a basin area of 1,175 square kilometers. The river begins on the Zangazur ridge's Gapidzhig mountain (3,285 meters).

The river flows through liberated Zangilan into the Araz River, with the majority of it located in Armenia's Syunik region (Azerbaijan's historical Zangazur region).

Because of transboundary water flows, approximately 70 percent of Azerbaijan's groundwater resources are formed in neighboring countries. The transboundary river Okhchuchay, which serves as a collector of industrial waste in Armenia, is constantly polluted by waste from the Gafan and Gajaran mining industries.

These industrial wastewaters are discharged into the river untreated, which occasionally increases the level of pollution. As a result, these water resources are deemed unfit for use on Azerbaijani territory. Furthermore, Okhchuchay flows into Araz, the second largest river in the South Caucasus, and pollution has a direct impact on its quality and water reserves.

Azerbaijan had previously urged responsible companies to halt operations at the Zangazur copper-molybdenum plant in Armenia's Syunik region due to the environmental disaster caused by the latter.

It should be noted that the plant's main shareholder is Germany's Cronimet Mining Company, which massively pollutes the transboundary Okhchuchay River.

On April 12, President Ilham Aliyev stated at a meeting dedicated to the results of the first quarter of 2022 that a special report on Armenia's environmental terror against Azerbaijan was prepared and adopted a few years ago by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

He stated that the rivers in Azerbaijan’s Karabakh were occupied and mercilessly exploited by Armenians.

“The catastrophe of the Okhchuchay River is before the eyes of the world now. We have raised this issue,” he said.

Noting that when he raised the issue, Azerbaijan was promised that the company responsible for the disaster would come and clean it up, he emphasized that a year has passed and no proposals have been received.

“Cronimet is the company that contaminated the Okhchuchay River. It is a large company, and according to some foreign media, it had an illegal business relationship with representatives of Serzhik Sarkisyan’s former junta regime using corruption schemes. Together they operated the copper plant there,” he said.

Aliyev noted that the preparations for a legal claim in this regard with the involvement of international experts are underway.

Armenia’s three-decade occupation of Azerbaijani territories extensively damaged the ecosystem, wildlife and natural resources in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Armenians also resorted to large-scale acts of ecological terror in regions they had to leave under the trilateral November peace deal that stipulated the return of Azerbaijan’s occupied territories.

The clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan escalated for the second time in 2020 after Armenia's forces deployed in the occupied Azerbaijani lands targeted Azerbaijani civilian settlements and military positions, causing casualties among civilians and the military. In the early hours of September 27, Azerbaijan launched a counter-offensive operation that lasted six weeks. The operation resulted in the liberation of Azerbaijan's occupied lands.

A Russia-brokered ceasefire deal that Azerbaijan and Armenia signed on November 10, 2020, brought an end to the 44-day war between the two countries. The Azerbaijani army declared a victory against the Armenian troops. The signed agreement obliged Armenia to withdraw its troops from the Azerbaijani lands that it had occupied.