Azerbaijan completes assessing Armenia-inflicted damages due to illegal mining

An official from the Ecology and Natural Resources Ministry has said that Azerbaijan completes assessing the damages inflicted on the country due to Armenia's illegal exploitation of the mineral resources fields in Karabakh.

The chairman of the ministry's Geological Exploration Agency Board, Ali Aliyev, made the remarks on January 17, Caliber.Az reports.

According to him, Karabakh and East Zangazur are Azerbaijani regions very rich in mineral resources.

"For more than 30 years we have been deprived of the opportunity to develop them. The initial monitoring on the assessment of the damage caused to our country as a result of the illegal development of these deposits by Armenians is already being completed, it will be submitted to the relevant state structures, and obviously, legal measures will be taken in the future," Aliyev said.

According to him, over 30 foreign companies took part in the illegal extraction of Azerbaijani mineral resources, mainly gold, copper, and various ores, during the years of the Armenian occupation.

"These are companies from Canada, the USA, Russia, Germany, India, Switzerland and other countries," he said.

Aliyev said that according to the richness of mineral resources and their diversity, Karabakh and East Zangezur can be called the Azerbaijani Urals.

According to him, there are over 800 deposits in Karabakh and East Zangezur, and not only minerals and ores, but also many building materials.

"Their development will have a positive impact on the development of the construction sector of the republic," Aliyev said.

The official noted that in the future, one of the main problems of Azerbaijan will be a water shortage.

"Azerbaijan is poor in groundwater. The last assessment of their volume was carried out in 1985 when water reserves amounted to 35,000 cubic metres," he said.

Aliyev added that climate change reduces these reserves, reduces precipitation, land-based water sources are reduced, and the fullness of transboundary rivers, so that in the future one of the big problems of both Azerbaijan and the world will be a water shortage.

"In the next 30-40 years, we will all feel a water shortage. And our task is to organise the efficient use of water, its economy, to prevent water losses in use, irrigation, transportation, etc.," Aliyev said.