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SECTION 5. SIGNIFICANT ISSUES Landscapes degradation, desertification. Anthropogenic influence caused upon coastal zone during thousand years and sharply risen in XX century had led to significant of landscapes accompanied by erosion and soil degradation, oppression of vegetative associations and animal kingdom. The reasons are as follows:
Shore change due to sea level increase. The penetration of water masses into the land on various areas is estimated from 5-10 m on the northern shore of Apsheron peninsula up to 8-10 km on Kura-Gizilagach area. The present process is accompanied by activation of abrasion processes and economical damage from agricultural lands loss, flooding of civil and industrial constructions, objects of transport infrastructure, engineering communications and rest zones. Caspian Sea contamination. In Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea water environment is characterized from moderate-contaminated to contaminated. The main sources of contamination are river flows, oil-gas production, cargo, non-refined waste of industrial zones, collector-drainage waters. Sea water contamination is accompanied with strong contamination of benthonic deposits of coastal line by oil products, phenols, heavy metals. Besides it the bottom of Baku Bay is littered with waste of organic origin, metal and other articles, and it saturated with heavy oil products and shlams of oil processing. In any case the anthropogenic change of biogenic load causes on the sea ecosystem: level of bioproductivity increases, physical and chemical peculiarities of water change. Contamination of land water resources. Nearly all the small rivers of the coastal zone are contaminated in this or that degree. The rivers quality composition varies from clean water in uppers to moderate contaminated in middle and lower parts. Water and benthonic deposits of Kura bringing the transit industrial and living waste from Georgia, Armenia and the country western part are intensively contaminated (5-15 UPC) by phenols, oil products, heavy metals, nitrogen ammonia, etc. Fresh and salt likes, artificial reservoirs are contaminated by incoming of industrial, living flows, drainage waters. Underground waters are more contaminated on Apsheron peninsula by the infiltration from damaged sewage and constructions and the industrial collectors as well. Leaks from arterial water-supplies and Samur-Devechi canal had led to swamping and flooding of areas in peninsula ddifferent regions. Soil contamination. The main sources of soil contamination are the residual quantities of mineral fertilizers and pesticides in agricultural regions and industrial waste in cities. On different agricultural lands of the coastal zone the content of chemical contaminators in soil varies from background values up to 50-60 UPC. In developed industrial zones, on Apsheron peninsula mainly, the basic contaminators are heavy metals (the maximum concentrations exceed the background values in 600-800 times), oil, oil products and slags of oil refining enterprises (the excess of background values is from 10-50 to 100 times), radionuclides (the excess of background values is 50-100 times). Atmospheric contamination. In spite of sharp decrease of production and energetic crisis the degree of atmospheric contamination from stationary sources in main industrial zone (Apsheron peninsula, Ali-Bairamly) is still significant. The share of motor transport (74%) increases in total volume of outbursts. Oppression of biological resources and ecosystems. Remained low-lying forests and also the definite part of non-settled deserted and semi-deserted landscapes had preserved their natural structure when the rest natural landscapes - low-lying meadows, meadow steppe and bushes, grassy marshes either modified or completely transformed into the various anthropogenic landscapes. The present process cause a deep qualitative influence upon the features of various organisms sites, oppressing in some cases the local species of vegetation and animals and promoting the development of alien, often bad and parasitic species. Near-water ecosystems confined to water-swampy lands of the coastal zone are undergone to the influence of as natural (mainly sea level increase) and the anthropogenic (contamination, influence upon water regime, economical activity, poaching) factors as well. The anthropogenic influence leads to change (reduction) of fodder supply (vegetative biomass) and number of birds. Water ecosystems of land (river and lake) are changed intensively under the anthropogenic influence and actually transformed into the agrozenoses and industrial ecosystems. Marine ecosystems on the major part of water area are undergone to contamination accompanied by increase of bacterioplankton with reduction of number and biomass of benthofauna, disturbance of trophic relations. Anthropogenic influence is supplemented with intensive poaching - shooting of games and over-fishing, mainly sturgeons and fish caught in thick net. Public health is controlled by developed network of medical departments. Respiratory diseases, digestive organs diseases, diseases of circulation of blood, skin and underskin cellular diseases, nervous system and sense organs diseases, and also the inflectional and parasitic diseases are more spread among all nosological forms of diseases. The increased percentage of these diseases spread is the indirect reflection of unfavorable ecological situation in regions. Population well-being. The population is covered by a system of social guarantee, provided by general primary and secondary education, network of sport and cultural-educational institutions. But generally these institutions don't meet the present requirements and must be re-organized. Generally, 59% of able-bodied population is involved into labour activity. At the same time the average monthly salary of working people is lower the living-wage for a person (according to estimation of independent experts the minimal consumer budget per person is 450 th. manats or 100 USD approximately) and varies within 12-75% in regions and 70-85% in Baku and Sumgayit. Municipal services. Due to energetic crisis there are difficulties in supply with electric and heat energy the population and definite part of industrial objects, mainly in the countryside of the coastal zone. The systems of centralized water-supply and drainage are installed in Baku, Sumgayit, Ali-Bairamly and the region centers in this or that degree. The acting systems of water-supply and drainage are in unsatisfactory technical state and require the reconstruction and extension. Only Baku, Sumgayit, Salyan and Lenkaran are provided with centralized systems of waste cleaning. But their technical state and capacity also don't meet the requirements of nature protection standards. Solid waste management is on low level. Solid living waste are transported to organized and non-organized dust-heaps without further utilization. Solid industrial waste are concentrated on industrial areas of enterprises and on non-organized dust-heaps. It leads to intensive land contamination. Legislative structure of planning and management of the coastal zone is based on code of legislative and normative acts, accepted in time of state independence and regulating the relations in the field of economic activity, social guarantee, natural resources use and environment protection. Public activity in planning and management is on the lowest though it is provided by lately accepted "Law on non-governmental organizations". There is a definite passivity of population in discussion and acceptance of decisions in the field of rational nature utilization and environment protection. |
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