The National Environmental Monitoring Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources announced the results of monitoring held in May to check the level of pollution in trans-boundary rivers Kura and Araz and their trans-boundary tributaries.

The monitoring revealed that the amount of biogenic substances in Kura and its tributaries is several times above the norm. The reason for this is the discharge of untreated domestic waste and sewage from industrial facilities into water facilities in the territory of Armenia and Georgia.

The content of phenols exceeded the maximum permissible concentration by over 5 times at the Shikhli-2 site. Moreover, the results of the monitoring showed that the Araz River is also excessively polluted with phenols – in different parts of the river that amount exceeds the permissible concentration twice over.

Meanwhile, the phenols exceeded the maximum permissible concentration by 4 times in the Agstafachay Reservoir.

At the same time, the phenol content exceeded the maximum permissible concentration 2 times over at the Horadiz, at Bahramtepe I Shahsevan-1 sites.

By Shawn Wayne

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