GREEN INVESTMENTS

In connection with the first in history European Games to be held in Azerbaijan in 2015, a number of big infrastructure projects will be implemented in Baku. A large scale project to rehabilitate nine lakes on the Abseron Peninsula promises to be one of such large scale events. It is no secret that many of them are very dirty and the areas around the lakes are not suitable for operation despite the fact that natural ponds in a densely populated metropolis have great recreational and commercial potential.    

The project to restore the lakes on the peninsula embraces nine bodies of water: Boyuksor, Hocasan, a lake near a sports complex in the settlement of Binaqadi, Puta (Lokbatan) and lakes Qu, Zabrat, Bulbula and Zix. The Clean City (Chistyy Gorod) joint stock company was selected as a contractor for the project. According to the company's head Zakir Ibrahimov, some lakes are in quite a critical condition. Zix is the most polluted lake. "I should point out that, irrespective of the extent of damage to the ecosystem, the lakes will not be drained completely. However, in particularly complicated cases, procedures will be carried out to reduce the area of those reservoirs if the level of their contamination does not allow doing without it," he said. The Dutch company Witteveen+Bos is involved in the project as it has extensive experience of restoring reservoirs in Turkey, Kazakhstan, Croatia and other countries. The consultant has made all necessary measurements and research and prepared a conceptual design for each individual reservoir. A minimum and a maximum scenario have been drawn up for the works. 

 The first of the nine water bodies embraced by the programme will be the largest of them, Lake Boyuksor having an area of 1,116 ha. The thing is that most events of the 1st European Games will be held on the eastern shore of Lake Boyuksor in the Baku-based complex of the Olympic stadium currently under construction. In this connection, it is planned to complete the first stage of the work before the start of the Games. During that stage covering 2014-2015, almost 300 ha of the area of the lake near the Olympic stadium will be restored. It is envisaged to build a dam to separate and isolate the northern part of the oil-contaminated area of the lake from the shoreline. That will make it possible to block the way for polluted water and floating waste. "The construction of an earthfill dam needed to lay a road will be completed before the end of February 2015. The dam designed as a six-lane highway marking the western boundaries of the area will link Ziya Bunyatov Avenue on the one side with Balaxani-Binaqadi highway on the other. That will in turn relieve the city's road infrastructure. The part of the road between the lake shores will be 1,570 metres in length. No waste waters will be discharged into the lake. Water polluted during its turnover will be sent to the Hovsan aeration station. It is planned to clean up the lake from contaminated silt and neutralize it as well as eliminate unauthorized waste dumps around the lake," said Ziya Ibrahimov. According to him a barrier will be put up on the southern shore of the lake to completely block the way for wastewater. In addition, improvement work will be carried out and a park and green areas will be made. In order to prevent contamination of the lake, a sewer will be built towards the stadium. It is planned to build a promenade boulevard along the shoreline and a passage to the stadium grounds. 

The second stage of the full restoration of the lake will cover the 2015-2020 period. "Thus the lake will be returned into its natural historical channel, the water level will be adjusted and the ecosystem will be restored," Z.Ibrahimov added. The first and second phases of efforts to restore Lake Boyuksor will cost an average of 99.5m manats and 183m manats respectively. Note that back at the end of last year, President Ilham Aliyev signed the decree "On additional measures to improve the environmental situation, protection and use of Lake Boyuksor" which entrusted control over the use and protection of the reservoir to the Ministry of Economics and Industry. The control also includes restoring the lake (its protection zone), guarding, improving the environmental situation and its reasonable use in the future as well as supervising its preservation.   

Similar steps will be take with regard to the other eights bodies of water. All the work will be financed from public funds. According to data from the project consultant, the Dutch company Witteveen+Bos, the recovery of the ecosystems of the nine lakes on the Abseron Peninsula may require an average of 500m manats and up to 716.14m manats at the most. 

Efforts to restore Lake Hocasan will take an average of 9.4m manats. The project to rehabilitate Lake Binaqadi having an area of 188 ha will cost 2.9m manats on average. 

The amount of funding needed to restore 345 ha of Lake Qirmizi is 52.5m manats on average. To restore Lake Lokbatan covering an area of 163 ha, an average of 34.3m manats will be needed. Nearly half this amount - between 12.64m and 27.66m manats - will be spent on work being done on Lake Bulbula having an area of 119 ha. Rehabilitation of Lake Zix, 119 ha in area, will cost 35.4m manats on average and Lake Qu will take 1.2m manats. 

Zabrat will be the most difficult of the eight relatively small Abseron lakes included in the programme. The reservoir has a very small area (39 ha) but the relative cost of its recovery will be the highest reaching 0.87m manats per ha. In general, the recovery of the lake will cost between 14.8m and 33.83m manats. 

The scope of work and the high attention being given to this project give every reason to expect the next few years to see a dramatic improvement in the environmental situation in the Abseron Peninsula and at least nine new, modern and clean places for family holidays will become available for the capital's residents.