One of the world's greatest delicacies is caviar, the roe of sturgeon. This and other rare species of fish inhabit the Caspian Sea on the border of Europe and Asia.
Experts have designated the Caspian Sea one of the richest ecosystems in the world. But its biodiversity is in imminent danger, for the Caspian Sea, which is in fact a gigantic lake, is severely polluted.
The delicate ecosystem of the Caspian Sea is being threatened by pollution, affecting fish stocks and other marine life.
Pollution sources
Pollution is also a health threat for the 11 million people living alongside the Caspian Sea. Much of the pollution is caused by spillages during the extraction, processing and transport of oil and gas from the huge deposits under the sea bed.
Another major source of pollution is the River Volga which flows into the Sea, bringing with it vast amounts of agricultural run-off from Russian land and domestic and industrial waste products. The Caspian Sea's unique ecology is also degraded by uranium-contaminated coolant from nuclear power plants on the coast.
Action plans
Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, all border the Sea, contributing to the pollution.
An EU project to alleviate the complex problems of pollution has the active involvement of four of the Caspian countries, with Iran adopting observer status. A consortium of the Dutch company DVH and COWI is running the project to map the sources of the pollution and draw up an action plan for the aquatic environment.
Formulating frameworks
"One of our main aims is to help the countries' own experts to formulate a uniform legal, technical and administrative framework for the environmental work in the sea." Some of the countries have tried over the years to limit pollution but have been hampered by inadequate resources, uncertainty as to the major sources of pollution and the means of cross-border spread, and by poor coordination." The EU project, designed to protect the biodiversity and inhabitants of the region, has the long-term aim of cutting pollution to acceptable levels within a generation," says project manager Jan Agerholm Høybye, COWI.By Eva Isager, jaje@cowi.com Published: 26.04.2007