Envisioning a Viable Water Pollution Control System in Azerbaijan:
Bringing in the Japanese Experience

Legislation, monitoring and compliance are the major elements of efficient water pollution control system and the study of these elements can be performed considering system’s legal, technical, financial and socio-economic aspects as well as the procedural representation of the system that form a basis for proper & effective interaction between those elements. The evaluation of procedural representation or, in other words the availability of a proper procedure to support each element, and mechanism of interaction between the elements of the system are the main focus of present study.

The first part comprise the assessment of correlation between properly managed system of environmental regulations and quality standards, principles of environmental water quality standards establishment, as well as standards of effluents discharged by various polluting sources, monitoring practices and compliance achievement, based on the description of system in Japan. This will also include the overview in the historical context of the strategy implemented by Japan’s government to eliminate and prevent the environmental degradation by provision of relevant measures to control the water pollution at the initial period of rapid economic growth till present time. The case of Tokyo Bay is given in order to show the gradual progress of implementation of various procedures at different stages of modern Japanese society development and policy changes aimed to achievement of better performance and compliance to specified targets.

In the second part the general state of water environment in Azerbaijan will be described and the review of problems performed. The description of environmental problems in Azerbaijan resulted from pollution with wastewater will be given in view of social – economic aspects that provided a long-term conditions for gradual environmental degradation. The policy of the government in the field of pollution control as well as an adequate legal base are deemed to be a strong tools to protect the environment. Therefore, a review of historical and recent changes in the government policy as well as the review of legislation and regulations adopted by the government to support the water pollution control policy in Azerbaijan will be done. The system of environmental standards and regulations is mainly of former USSR and, in some cases appears to be even more stringent than that adopted by many developed countries. However, in view of recent social – economic changes mainly related to the collapse of Soviet Union, end of centralized authority approach and newly acquired independence, the principles of standards establishment and, in particular, the regulations as well as monitoring and enforcement practices are out-of-date and should be reconsidered to form a new comprehensive system of management.

The information given in first two parts comprises the description of those features of water pollution system in Japan and Azerbaijan which are necessary to perform the evaluation of system’s procedural representation, i.e. identification of whether there is an appropriate feedback between its key elements – legislation, monitoring and compliance. This information will be used in Part III for building up the recommendations derived from Japan’s successful experience but adjusted to local conditions in Azerbaijan. These recommendations will be based on internationally recognized standards establishment principles as well as concepts of pollution control and prevention that will facilitate and sustain better performance and compliance by all actors (polluters) in Azerbaijan.