Waste recycling plants are needed in the regions

The problem of collecting solid household waste, unsolvable for decades, is becoming relevant again with coming of  hot summer months in rural areas of Azerbaijan.  Household garbage in villages is thrown by the population into the river tract, under bridges, in the forest, from a cliff. Sometimes, as in the resort village of Ilisu in the Gakh region, residents throw garbage into a cliff starting at the end of private courtyards on the north side of the village. Residents of the south side throw household waste, construction debris and animal manure at the slope of the nearest mountain.  Under the car bridge, along the road to the forest - these are also places of garbage dumps in Ilisu.  In rainy and snowy times the waste is washed away by precipitation, being disposed of in a natural way; but under the summer sun the decomposing garbage becomes a place for insects, rodents and jackals. In addition, the number of residents in  the village Ilisu doubles in summer due to tourists and vacationers. 

The same unsightly picture is observed in the village of Bostanji in Khachmaz region and in other places of the country.

In the last three years, the regional executive authorities, together with municipalities, have been installing garbage cans in villages and taking garbage to landfills allocated for this purpose. But this is not done everywhere. In the same  village of Ilisu, garbage containers are put up, and waste is removed only during the months of the tourist season. In September, the containers are taken away, and residents are forced to pollute nature again. 

The problem of solid waste collection in rural areas is of concern to villagers, who express their dissatisfaction in writing and at meetings with the region leadership.  At a meeting of residents of the village of Jalair with Musa Shekiliev, the head of the executive power of the Gakh region, residents demanded to provide the municipality with equipment for garbage collection.

In the last two years, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources has launched propaganda work in educational institutions to explain to schoolchildren and students the responsibilities of the population to take care of the cleanliness of the environment.  The ministry's website reports to hold lessons on the theme "A Year of Solidarity for a green World" at the Azerbaijan University of Cooperation, the secondary school of the village of Zergava in the Guba  region, the school of the village of Gullar in the Balakan region, the central library of the city of Gabala, etc.

The problem is slowly moving forward. In the village of Ashagi Seifeli, Shamkir region, household garbage is collected from houses by a municipal worker in a truck allocated for this purpose, driving around houses 6 days a week.

According to Vugar Tofigli, an expert in the municipal sphere, rural municipalities do not have the financial and human resources to constantly clean up garbage in villages. With an annual budget of 5,000 manats, municipalities cannot solve the problem of household waste," the expert said.

Nevertheless, the police and the Ministry of Ecology issue fines to municipalities for illegal landfills. In June 2023, the Ministry of Internal Affairs fined municipalities in Baku and Shamakhi region for illegal landfills and incineration of garbage, the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported.

The responsibility should be borne by local executive authorities which have resources for it and which include housing and communal services departments.  And if municipalities are named responsible and they are fined, then state financing of elected authorities should be increased,  says V.Tofigli.

The ministry fulfills its responsibility to control cleanliness and protect the environment, but local authorities and the Ministry of Internal Affairs must clean up and force the population to comply with sanitary rules, Irada Ibrahimova, the head of the Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources told Turan.

The issue of final delivery and industrial disposal of solid waste in rural areas remains unresolved. Only one such plant has been built in the whole of Azerbaijan, in the Absheron village of Balakhany. The Baku Solid Waste Recycling Plant, commissioned in 2012, processes over 500 thousand tons of solid waste per year, generating 231.5 million kWh of electricity and providing electricity to an average of 100,000 families during the year. In the rest of the country, waste is buried in large landfills instead of being disposed of and benefiting from the garbage. Back in 2012, it was announced that the construction of such a plant in Ganja, with a capacity of 150 thousand tons of waste per year, with the participation of the French company Nef International, would soon begin, but the problem  still  remains unsolved.

Under the fifth Article of the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan "On Waste" (Tullantılar haqqında), the executive authorities and the Ministry of Ecology are charged not with cleaning and subsequent recycling of household garbage, but with organizing relations between entities engaged in cleaning, removal and recycling of garbage, and other related areas - allocation of territories, damage assessment and punishment of perpetrators.