Baku, July 24 (AZERTAC). President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has reviewed the environmental project around Lake Boyukshor and adjacent areas.

Minister of Economy and Industry Shahin Mustafayev briefed the head of state on the work which is to be carried out.

This project is implemented under “The State Program for the Socio-Economic Development of the City of Baku and its Suburbs in 2014- 2016” approved by the President`s order dated 17 January 2014 and a decree on additional measures on improvement, protection and usage of ecological condition of Lake Boyukshor.

The majority of events of the first European Games will be held on the eastern shore of Lake Boyukshor in Baku Olympic Stadium complex which is currently under construction. The site will receive many guests, sportsmen and tourists. The comprehensive restoration of the ecology of Lake Boyukshor and its environs and the establishment of Boyukshor boulevard are of great importance from this point of view.

It was noted that the project to restore the ecology of the lake will be implemented in two phases. The work in the first phase covering 2014-2015 years is successfully continuing. An area of almost 300 hectares of the lake situated near the Olympic Stadium is restored. This phase envisaged the separation from the shoreline and its isolation from it by means of a dam of the northern part of the historically oil-polluted sector of the lake.

The work to build a dam was ended preventing oil, polluted waters and floating waste.

The dam, which is designed as a six-lane highway and which marks the western boundaries of the territory, will link Ziya Bunyadov Avenue on one side and the Balakhani-Binagadi highway on the other. This, in turn, will ease traffic in the city’s road infrastructure. The construction of the ground dam is continuing on schedule and it is planned to finish the work in the first quarter of the next year. At the same time the work to cleanse the lake of polluted sediment is continuing. Under the project more than 100,000 cubic meters of 2.8 million cubic meters sediment were cleaned. Serious protection work was organized, including security area of the lake, while pollution of the lake and its shorelines from domestic and construction waste was completely prevented. The wide-scale landscaping and construction work is carried out on the southern shore of Lake Boyukshor, a park and green belts are created in the 16 hectares area. A one kilometer part of Boyukshor boulevard along the eastern shoreline will be laid out in the first half of the next year and a crossing from there to the stadium territory will be built.

It was noted that the second phase of the complete restoration of Lake Boyukshor will take place in 2015-2020. The lake will thereby be returned to its natural historical state, the water level will be regulated and the ecosystem will be restored. International specialists rate Lake Boyukshor as one of the most complexly polluted lakes in the world. As a result of work done in a short period of time the dynamics of water quality indicators improved.

President Ilham Aliyev highly appreciated the ecological importance of the project, and gave relevant instructions and recommendations.