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High cancer levels
Many workers at Azerchimia - earning on average between $80 and $100 per
month - walk about without protective clothing. Several of the working
areas at the plant, which produces chlorine and other substances, have
no roofs - with rust eating away at the old buildings management decided
it was better to take the roofs off rather than have them collapse on
the workforce.
Large amounts of highly toxic substances like mercury and lindane are
strewn over a large area. A UNDP report published in 1996 referred to
the “apocalyptic state of Sumgait’s environment”.
While production cutbacks have resulted in less overall pollution, little
rehabilitation work has been done. “People here still suffer from high levels
of cancer and other diseases,” says Khalida Yuliyeva, chief paediatrician
for the city of Sumgait, which now has a population of 350,000. “Other
problems, like a high occurrence of still births and various birth defects,
can continue for many years after the actual pollution has gone away.”
Revenues from recently discovered oil and gas supplies could be used to
tackle Sumgait’s environmental problems.
Free economic zone
Foreign companies have begun exploiting what are considered to be some of
the world’s largest remaining untapped energy reserves in the Caspian Sea.
Billions of dollars of revenue will flow into Azerbaijan’s coffers.
“We are well aware of the problems we face,” says Gussein Bagirov,
Azerbaijan’s minister of ecology and natural resources. “One proposal
is to turn the Sumgait complex into a free economic zone, funds from
which would support a clean-up. Oil revenues will also be used to remove
environmental hazards.” Yet though revenues from oil might provide a
solution at Sumgait, oil is also the cause of Azerbaijan’s other main
environmental problem.
A start has been made at tackling some environmental problems. The
World Bank has funded a $3m landfill site near Sumgait to dispose of
mercury waste. However cash strapped factories lack funds to pay the
disposal charges and, as production continues, mercury continues to be
stockpiled at the industrial complex.
“Everyone wants to see action to clean up Azerbaijan’s environment but
it’s a huge task,” says Ahmed Jehani, the World Bank’s representative
in Baku. “There are no clear figures about how much it will all cost but
the figures are very big - in the billions. We can only hope that the
country spends its oil revenues wisely.”
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