Ecologists: erection of waste incinerator in Baku will only aggravate environmental problems

In Baku today the issue of garbage disposal is quite pressing; however, the construction of a waste incinerate factory launched last year will not only fail to solve the ecology problems of the Azerbaijani capital but will only aggravate them, local ecologists assert.

Residents of Baku complain that the three-million city has no system of household waste recycling. To address the problem, last September construction of an incinerate factory was started by the French company CNIM S.A.

The settlement of Balakhany, located on the Apsheron, has one of the largest garbage dumps in the city; and the future incinerator is built in its immediate proximity. Until recently, the main claim to Balakhany dump was that wastes were just burned there, for lack of other recycling facilities. As a result, dense black smog spread hundreds kilometres around, poisoning the atmosphere. Besides, under observations of Baku residents, the dump is a permanent residence of vagabonds.

According to ecologist Fikret Dzhafarov, Chairman of the "Society of Sustainable Development," the main problem of the area is that the territory of Balakhany is polluted with dioxides, accumulated during many years that wastes had been burnt down there.

According to his story, within the recent decades, the volume of Baku wastes went up by in 2-3 times and now makes about 300-350 kg per capita per year.

Meanwhile, the city authorities are sure that the situation is not so threatening and the problem is being solved. According to the order of President of Azerbaijan, in August 2008, the Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) "Clean City" was formed.

According to Zakir Ibragimov, Chairman of the Board of the Company, now that the factory is in construction, tons of garbage accumulated for years are covered by soil. "In future, the 'Clean City' plans improving ecology here by planting of greenery," he said.

"It is planned to capture the smoke ash formed at waste burning by multistage filters, the sludge will be so harmless that can be used in making road coatings. As a result, the volume of wastes in the capital will drop by 10 times, and the weight - by three times. The burning waste will generate 231.5 million watt/hours of electric power for the city network," Mr Ibragimov asserts.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in 2008 Baku was recognized to be the dirtiest out of 215 megalopolises of the globe under the version of the Mercer Human Resource Consulting (MHRC).