ID :
201598
Tue, 08/16/2011 - 12:03
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/201598
The shortlink copeid
Littoral States Resolved to Tackle Pollution Problem in Caspian Sea
TEHRAN (FNA)- The five Caspian Sea littoral states announced their firm resolve to address the environmental problems of the Sea amid the serious warnings of experts that the level of industrial and oil pollution in the largest enclosed body of water on Earth has reached a critical condition.
High-level representatives from Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan agreed on the new steps in Aktau, Kazakhstan, last week at a meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Tehran Convention, a legally-binding agreement adopted in the Iranian capital in 2003, for which the UN Environment Program (UNEP) provides the Secretariat.
"The adoption of the Protocol Concerning Regional Preparedness, Response and Cooperation in Combating Oil Pollution Incidents by the five Caspian states marks a historic milestone in their determination to protect and preserve the Caspian Sea environment against the threats posed by oil pollution," UNEP said in a news release on Monday.
"Once ratified by the parties to the Tehran Convention, the Protocol will see the introduction of an emergency response system for dealing with oil pollution incidents."
Over the last two decades, the Caspian has become increasingly exposed to the risk of pollution from oil and gas exploration, exploitation and transport, with the transport of oil or oil products accounting for some 10,000 shipping movements annually, a press release issued by the UN Information Center (UNIC) said here on Tuesday.
The countries also agreed in principle on the text of a protocol on environmental impact assessment, introducing common rules to assess planned activities likely to cause significant adverse effects on the marine environment. It will also require countries to notify one another of such activities.
Earlier, an Iranian ecological expert had warned that the level of industrial and oil pollution in the Caspian Sea has reached a "critical condition".
"In terms of pollution, the Caspian Sea is in critical condition," Reza Pourgholam, head of the Caspian Sea Ecological Research Institute, told FNA in May.
Exploitation of oil fields and traffic of large oil tankers dumps 122,350 tons of potentially cancerous oil pollutants into the world's largest inland sea annually, Pourgholam said.
The sea is also poisoned by large quantities of heavy metal just as dangerous as the hydrocarbons, he said, adding that "304 tons of cadmium and 34 tons of lead pollute the sea every year."
Pourgholam said that 95 percent of the pollution originates from the sea's littoral states in the North and Northwest - Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, home to a major offshore oil industry.
The Islamic republic is only responsible for five percent of the pollution, by dumping agricultural waste such as fertilizer and pesticides as well as detergents into the sea, Pourgholam said.
According to him, agricultural pollutants dumped into the sea in the Iranian province of Mazandaran, situated in the Southeast of the Caspian Sea, fell from 10,000 tons to 4,000 annually over the past decade after Iran took measures to lower its pollution of the sea.
The treatment of the Caspian Sea's environmental problems is among the issues on which the bordering countries have yet to reach agreement.
Other issues still outstanding include the legal status of the sea and the delimitation of territorial waters after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The issue has been delaying the signing of an international convention on the Caspian Sea in preparation for years, to govern the cooperation of riparian states in all fields.
High-level representatives from Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan agreed on the new steps in Aktau, Kazakhstan, last week at a meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Tehran Convention, a legally-binding agreement adopted in the Iranian capital in 2003, for which the UN Environment Program (UNEP) provides the Secretariat.
"The adoption of the Protocol Concerning Regional Preparedness, Response and Cooperation in Combating Oil Pollution Incidents by the five Caspian states marks a historic milestone in their determination to protect and preserve the Caspian Sea environment against the threats posed by oil pollution," UNEP said in a news release on Monday.
"Once ratified by the parties to the Tehran Convention, the Protocol will see the introduction of an emergency response system for dealing with oil pollution incidents."
Over the last two decades, the Caspian has become increasingly exposed to the risk of pollution from oil and gas exploration, exploitation and transport, with the transport of oil or oil products accounting for some 10,000 shipping movements annually, a press release issued by the UN Information Center (UNIC) said here on Tuesday.
The countries also agreed in principle on the text of a protocol on environmental impact assessment, introducing common rules to assess planned activities likely to cause significant adverse effects on the marine environment. It will also require countries to notify one another of such activities.
Earlier, an Iranian ecological expert had warned that the level of industrial and oil pollution in the Caspian Sea has reached a "critical condition".
"In terms of pollution, the Caspian Sea is in critical condition," Reza Pourgholam, head of the Caspian Sea Ecological Research Institute, told FNA in May.
Exploitation of oil fields and traffic of large oil tankers dumps 122,350 tons of potentially cancerous oil pollutants into the world's largest inland sea annually, Pourgholam said.
The sea is also poisoned by large quantities of heavy metal just as dangerous as the hydrocarbons, he said, adding that "304 tons of cadmium and 34 tons of lead pollute the sea every year."
Pourgholam said that 95 percent of the pollution originates from the sea's littoral states in the North and Northwest - Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, home to a major offshore oil industry.
The Islamic republic is only responsible for five percent of the pollution, by dumping agricultural waste such as fertilizer and pesticides as well as detergents into the sea, Pourgholam said.
According to him, agricultural pollutants dumped into the sea in the Iranian province of Mazandaran, situated in the Southeast of the Caspian Sea, fell from 10,000 tons to 4,000 annually over the past decade after Iran took measures to lower its pollution of the sea.
The treatment of the Caspian Sea's environmental problems is among the issues on which the bordering countries have yet to reach agreement.
Other issues still outstanding include the legal status of the sea and the delimitation of territorial waters after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The issue has been delaying the signing of an international convention on the Caspian Sea in preparation for years, to govern the cooperation of riparian states in all fields.
