The Caspian Sea
Economic Exploitation a Threat to the Environment
By Oksana Kim, for the Chronicle
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The Caspian Sea, the largest inland body of water on Earth with a total surface area of 371,000 square kilometers and one of the world’s smallest seas, geographically represents the intersection of Europe and Asia. This explains the uniqueness of its biodiversity and the strategical importance of its enormous oil and gas supplies, which have been the main points of concern for Azerbaijan, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan—the countries surrounding the Sea. However, environmental issues have never been a priority for the national governments, nor have they been a major concern for private structures operating in the region. Cooperation among States with respect to environmental issues is vitally important in order to prevent a dramatic decline of the Caspian Sea before it is too late, as has happened to the Aral Sea.
The area is home to 400 unique species, but the population of some of these species has been close to unstable equilibrium, which means they will face extinction if the ecological situation does not change for the better. The reason for this threat is the agricultural run-off, rich in chemical substances, that kills thousands of living species whose immune systems are sensitive to the changes in the water’s composition. The situation has been worsened by the careless extraction of resources leading to the spills from natural oil and gas drilling process. Those by-products of commercial activity in the region have resulted in significant soil, land and water contamination. In addition, the construction of gigantic industrial refining complexes has led to the destruction of the coastal line, causing damage to many settlements surrounding the Caspian Sea.
The Volga and Ural Rivers, which cross the territory of Russia and flow into the Caspian, have been the major source of untreated waste disposal into the Sea. Russia has been responsible for contamination of these rivers because of its heavy industry disposing sewage into the rivers for years; surrounding nations have been suffering from the negative by-products of that disposal. The financial difficulties many industrial complexes have been facing since the 1990s made the installation of recycling devices impossible.
Before the collapse of the Communist era, enormous natural resources in the Caspian Basin had been the major source of economic prosperity for two surrounding countries: Iran and the Soviet Union. The region had been the world’s oil production centre at the end of the twentieth century. Extraction of non-renewable natural gas and oil was so extensive that it was decided to extend drilling into the Caspian Sea. The overwhelming results of decades of over-exploitation of the Caspian resources and the neglectful attitudes towards potential environmental risks were first made known at the collapse of the Soviet Union. The consequences were a combined product of both man-made activity and natural processes. Thus, a natural rise of the Caspian Sea level, which has not yet been explained scientifically, creates additional concern for all surrounding countries. According to data, the Sea has risen more than 2.2 metres since 1978, resulting in floods that have damaged a number of municipal structures and roads and destroyed human settlements, as well as in climate change that in turn have led to inevitable changes in biological productivity of some species.
The Caspian Sea also holds a great amount of sturgeon, which accounts for 90 percent of the world’s caviar production. The black caviar has always been a synonym of prosperity and a high living standard for those involved in the business. In the 1970s and 1980s, the rapid decline in sturgeon stock due to overfishing and water pollution became evident, but preventive measures were not taken in time. As a result, the sturgeon population has been significantly reduced. Historically, Iran and the former Soviet Union were major caviar exporters. Only recently have environmental regulations become a concern in the former Soviet Union; there are now hopeful signs these concerns will lead to greater environmental protection of the Caspian Sea. |
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