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Absheron Peninsula - One of the most polluted sites in the World by Filip Singer
Most of Azerbaijan’s industrial potential is concentrated in the Absheron Peninsula, which is also one of the oldest oil producing regions in the world. Decades of industrial operations without proper care of the environment have left about 30,000 hectares of land in the peninsula polluted by oil products and various industrial waste. Moreover, the weak solid waste management system is unable to collect and dispose of any more than 60 percent of solid waste produced in the area. These factors pose serious health risks, and limit the expansion of two major cities situated in the peninsula – Baku and Sumgayit, as they are encircled by the polluted zones. During the Soviet era, the environment of the Absheron peninsula coastal city of Sumgayit was subjugated to industrial goals. Each year, hundreds of thousands of tons of toxic waste were released into the atmosphere or dumped into a creek that fed into the Caspian Sea. Now the pollution has overwhelmed the sea around Sumgayit and Baku, creating a virtual dead zone. The area has witnessed a dramatic rise in stillbirths and miscarriages. Even today, the untreated sewage continues to be dumped into the Caspian Sea.
The old Soviet system of crude of oil has heavily damaged the environment of the peninsula. Some parts of Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan, are located in the middle of oil fields zones. In poor districts, houses of Baku citizens are situated just next to oil lakes and oil pumps. Now in the time of a new oil boom, Azerbaijan’s crude oil on old Soviet oil fields has once again gained interest from western companies. Sumgaiyt city, former capital of the Soviet petroleum industry, is situated just 40 kilometers from Baku. Sumgayit’s industrial zone in Soviet days produced a cocktail of toxic chemicals ranging from lindane (until 1981) to DDT. In 2006, the Blacksmith Institute, a New York City-based environmental watchdog, listed Sumgayit among the 10 most polluted sites in the world, also including Ukraine’s Chernobyl and Russia’s Norilsk.
