In order to determine the level of pollution of Okchuchay water, serious changes in the color of the water and a strong smell were observed during the monitoring conducted last week.

APA informs that this was announced at the meeting of the Working Group on Environmental Issues of the Interdepartmental Center operating under the Coordination Headquarters for the centralized solution of issues in the liberated territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

It was noted that the analysis of water samples taken from the monitoring point of the river near the border with Armenia revealed that the concentration of iron, manganese, molybdenum, ammonium and sulfates in the water has increased.

The analysis of the data transmitted from the new generation automatic hydrological stations installed in the transboundary rivers, including in Okchuchay in Shayifli village of Zangilan region, confirmed the increase in pollution.

Heavy metal pollution of Okchuchay is observed throughout the year.

During the last monitoring, the reason for the change in the color and smell of the river was the sharp increase in the amount of ammonium and sulfate ions in Okchuchay.

Thus, in Okchuchay, the amount of ammonium was 4-5 times higher than the norm, and the amount of sulfate was several times higher than the norm.

This is due to the wide use of these chemicals in the mining industry.