Baku counters accusations of Tehran in contributing to pollution in Caspian Sea

The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan has responded
to allegations made by Deputy Chief of the Department of Marine
Environmental Protection of Iran, Abdul Reza, on the role of Azerbaijan
in polluting the Caspian Sea, Trend reports.

This is not the first time Iran has accused Azerbaijan of
contributing to the pollution of the Caspian Sea, the Head of ecological and
environmental policies of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan,
Rasim Sattarzadeh, said on Friday.

According to him, in order to improve the ecological status of the
sea, all five Caspian countries must work together on
environmental protection.

Sattarzadeh noted that Azerbaijan is using modern technology to reduce
the amount of waste from oil production and has achieved great
successes in this field compared with Soviet times.

According to him, the main cause of pollution is the discharge of
industrial and household waste from the land to the rivers flowing into
the Caspian Sea, and that this shows that Azerbaijan cannot be a major source
of pollution.