Final
Report
THE 5th
SESSION OF THE COORDINATING COMMITTEE ON HYDROMETEOROLOGY AND POLLUTION
MONITORING OF THE CASPIAN SEA (CASPCOM)
1. Organization of the Session
1.1. At the kind invitation of the Government of the
Republic of Kazakhstan the 5th session of the Coordinating Committee
on Hydrometeorology and Pollution Monitoring of the Caspian Sea (CASPCOM) was
held in the business - centre of
Almaty, September 5-6, 2000.
1.2. Dr. A.M. Noorian the Chairman of the CASPCOM,
the Vise Minister for Roads and Transportation and President of the I.R. of
Iran Meteorological Organization (IRIMO) welcomed the participants of the
session.
1.3. Dr.
T.K. Kudekov, Vice-president of the CASPCOM - the Director General of the
Republic State Enterprise “Kazhydromet” of the Republic of Kazakhstan
delivered a greeting speech to the
participants of the 5-th CASPCOM session, in which he noted the exclusive
importance of items to be considered by the session (the text of the statement
of Dr T.K. Kudekov is given in the Annex
1).
1.4. Mr.
S.K. Bazarbayev - the Representative of
the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Protection of the Republic of
Kazakhstan on behalf of the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment
Protection of the Republic of Kazakhstan warmly welcomed the participants of
the 5th CASPCOM session
(text of the statement of Mr. S. K. Bazarbayev is given in the Annex 2).
1.6. The participants of the Session adopted the
Agenda of the Session (Annex 3) and agreed on the working hours of the Session.
2. Report of the Chairman of CASPCOM
2.1 Dr. A.M Noorian - the Chairman of CASPCOM,
delivered a the comprehensive report on the activity of the Coordinating
Committee for the reporting period. He emphasized, that the essential work to
realize measures approved by the 4-th CASPCOM session ( Teheran, September,
1999) has been accomplished. However, there were great challenges ahead of the
Committee. The full text of the statement of Dr А.М. Noorian is submitted in
the Annex 4.
3. National reports of the Caspian Sea States on the activity in the field of
hydrometeorology and monitoring of environment of the Caspian Sea
The 5th session considered the national reports of Dr. M.R.Mansimov, the Deputy Head of
Goscomhydromet of the Azerbaijan Republic,
Dr. М.Т. Zamanian, Assistant of the President of IRIMO from
Islamic Republic of Iran, Dr. T.K.Kudekov,
Director General of RGP “Kazhydromet” of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Dr. A.I. Bedritsky, Chief of Roshydromet of the Russian Federation.
Republic of Turkmenistan was not attending the Fifth session.
The texts of the reports of Dr M.R.Mansimov, Dr M.T.
Zamanian, Dr T.K.Kudekov, and Dr A.I.Bedritsky are submitted accordingly in
Annexes 5,6,7,8.
4. Report of the Coordinator of the CASPAS Programme
The session considered the report of Dr. A.A.
Maximov, the Coordinator of the CASPAS Programme and Head of Department of
Science and International Cooperation of Roshydromet (the text of the report is
submitted in the Annex 9).
5. Statements of Representatives of International
Organizations
5.1 The session considered the statement of Dr.
A.S.Zaitsev – Assistant to the Secretary General of WMO.
On behalf of Professor
G.O.P.Obasi, the Secretary General of
WMO, Dr. A.S.Zaitsev wished success for all present participants in
carrying out the Session. He also
informed that, following the results of the IV Session of CASPCOM which was
held in Teheran, the Secretariat of WMO together with the CASPAS Coordinator
prepared the texts of the projects for fulfillment of the decisions and
recommendations produced during that Session. This plan of action was
approved by the Secretary General and included a number of positions:
·
One
of the actions proposed was the project connected to organization of special
seminars for the consumers of the hydrometeorological information, first of all
for oil and gas companies, and also for a number of non governmental
organizations. It was noted that, this proposal was ready for sending to the UN
Fund on the international partnership in New York (Turner Fund);
·
One
more project was directed to modernization and development of the
hydrometeorological network and information system of the countries of the
Caspian Sea basin. After appropriate consultations which was held in Brussells,
the project was dispatched for acquaintance to the countries of the Caspian Sea
Region. In the middle of August 2000, it was approved by the Chairman of the
Committee and it was sent to WMO Secretary General. During preparation of this
project there were some changes, and its final completion was carried out at
the Fifth Session. Thus, Dr. A.S. Zaitsev emphasized that it was necessary to
observe some requirements, for example, according to the program of TACIS, it was necessary to fill in the
application as a minimum from two countries.
He noted that, in the period
between sessions the question on system of supervision of a hydrological cycle
in the Caspian Sea basin was studied. The consent of all countries of the
Caspian Sea basin was required for realizing that project. And then WMO would
be ready to begin preparation of that project. The project was perspective at
once for several reasons. First of all it could help with the solution of a problem
of fresh water.
In Almaty the internal
project on the forecast of ice conditions in the Northern Caspian was prepared.
On misunderstanding, the project was named as the project on a hydrological
cycle, and consequently was not examined. He added, therefore, at registration
of projects it was necessary to more attentively operate with the “HYCOS” term.
As a result, Dr. A.S
.Zaitsev told that he had much more detailed information on set forth above and
other projects and he would share it with pleasure to all wishing. In a process
of discussion of the projects during the session, he reserved an opportunity to
act with the remarks and suggestions.
5.2 At the request of Dr.
S.S. Khodkin, Vice-Chairman of the (IOC) UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographical Commission,
Dr. T.K.Kudekov cited his address to the participants of 5-th session (text of
the address is submitted in the Annex 10).
The ultimate goal of the
program consisted the development of a long-term plan on protection of
environment, on the basis of the protocols adopted from the countries of the Caspian Sea region. Therefore it was
important to develop the plan which is taking into account interests of all 5 countries participants.
Mr. S.Gunn also noted some
complex moments in the work of CEP. First of all, those searches of financing. Moreover, during the
joint work with the countries of the
Caspian Sea Region some
misunderstanding were observed, in particular on stages of monitoring. Mr. S. Gunn hoped that the further
integrated cooperation would allow to remove these lacks.
6. Discussion on the Reports
and Statements submitted in Items 2 - 5
of the Agenda
The participants of the
session took into account the significant information contained in the reports
and statements in items 2 - 5 of the Agenda, on activities of NHMS of the Caspian Sea Region countries in solving
of the tasks, facing them, in the field of hydrometeorology and monitoring of
pollution of the Caspian sea.
The participants welcomed the
initiative of Dr. A.M. Noorian to organize together with oil companies the
first roving seminar on realization of the CASPAS Program in March - April, 2001 in the Islamic
Republic of Iran. They also commended initiative of Dr. A.I. Bedritsky to
organize the second such seminar in the Russian Federation.
The participants of the
session noted “the Review of Azgosconhydromet activities on hydrometeorology
and monitoring of the Environment of the Caspian Sea ” submitted by Azgosconhydromet (Annex 11), the “Review of the present state of
observing system for both: hydrometeorological characteristics and pollution of
the Caspian Sea, and the state of research activities in that field”, submitted
by Roshydromet (Annex 12,10 copies of the above-mentioned “Review” were
distributed among delegations of the Session), and also the Address of the well
known Russian academicians on the future of the Caspian Sea (Annex 13)
submitted by Roshydromet.
During the discussion, Mr.
S.Gunn, the CEP representative, was asked a number of questions with the
purpose to find out the role and the place of CEP in solving of socio-economic
and nature protection tasks in the Caspian Sea Region.
7. Exchange of opinion on
priority issues of operative and research activities in the Caspian Sea Region
The 5th session
of the CASPCOM, having discussed item 7 of the Agenda in details, expressed
concern over the state of activity on receiving and regional exchange of the
real time hydrometeorological information, and also information on pollution of
natural environment in the Region of the Caspian Sea. The CASPCOM members
emphasized that it required to be more active not only in operative activities,
but also in research activities in the region on problems such, as:
·
Changing
of the level of the Caspian Sea;
·
Estimation
and forecast of changes in natural system of the Caspian Sea under influence of
fluctuations of the sea level and pollution.
The session considered that,
oceanographic research and the supervision of pollution of the sea environment
in the open sea were either absent, or
carried out not regularly.
During the discussion the
following basic problems interfering radical improvement of above-mentioned activities came into
light:
I. The NMHSs of all the Caspian Sea Region countries experienced sharp lack
of financial assets for restoration and
modernization of the hydrometeorological observation network,
considerably reduced in the last years, and
of the pollution observing networks of the Caspian Sea;
II. The destruction of the single
observation system over hydrometeorological characteristics and pollution of the Caspian Sea did not allow
generating an objective picture of a
condition of the natural environment of
the Caspian Sea, as these observations were not coordinated in
time and space, carried out under the
different programs and methods;
III. In previous
years, because of
the infringement of geodetic binding to
uniform “zero” of items of
supervision over a level of the
Caspian
Sea in all the countries
began to arise
significant mistakes in
definition of real marks of the sea level;
IV.
The structure and
quality of supervision over necessary
hydrometeorological, oceanographic and hydrochemical para-
meters in the
existing observation network in
the Caspian Sea
countries considerably
decreased. Moreover, the volume of a mutual exchange
of the operative hydrometeorological data and information between
the Caspian Sea countries also
reduced. Furthermore, in international level, exchange of data and information
decreased.
The CASPCOM members came to
a conclusion, that the reasons of infringement of an exchange of the operative
and regime information between NMHSs of the Caspian Coast countries, and also
of the reductions of receiving the data to GTS WMO were:
·
Continuing
degradation of observation network in the majority of the Caspian Sea countries;
·
Absence
of reliable communication facilities, uniform methodologies, and a number of
other problems.
The 5th CASPCOM session addressed the
Heads of the NMHS of all the Caspian Sea countries with an appeal to undertake
urgent measures with the purpose to improve functioning an existing observant
network, to increase the number of
observing items in key areas of the Caspian Sea Region. This would resolutely
improve regional exchange of the operative and regime data on a condition and
pollution of natural environment of the Caspian Sea, not to allow deterioration
of system of information maintenance on the disasters in the Caspian Sea but to
cope with harmful industrial discharges to fragile natural system of the Sea.
In this connection, the participants of the fifth
CASPCOM session accepted the following
recommendations:
1. The Heads of
the NMHSs of the Caspian Coast
countries to charge the
appropriate subordinated organizations and establishments untill
October
15,
2000 to analyse the reasons
of absence of
an exchange of
the
standard
hydrometeorological information,
deterioration of the condition of
hydrometeorological network and network of supervision over pollution of the
Caspian sea, interstate exchange of the hydrometeorological information, and
also the reason of low activity of research works in the field of
hydrometeorology and monitoring of natural environment in the Region of the
Caspian Sea.
2. Up to the first of October, 2000
CASPCOM has to generate from the experts of all the Caspian Sea countries
(total 5 persons) ad-hoc working group of experts for development on the
basis of the above-stated analytical information of the detailed suggestions on
improvement of system of supervision and activization of research works in the
field of hydrometeorology and monitoring of natural environment of the Caspian
Sea. The working group has to prepare the specified suggestions, meaning budget
and non-budget means attraction for
their realization, and to send the suggestions to the CASPCOM members for
the coordination up to first of December, 2000 .
3. The NMHSs
of the Caspian Sea countries to exchange the items of information on
requirements of each country for the reception of the data and information from
stations by November 1, 2000.
4. The
CASPCOM Chairman to direct the suggestions, developed by the working group, to
CEP, WMO and other interested organizations or donors with the purpose of
requesting their financial support for their realization till the 15 of
December, 2000.
The 5th CASPCOM
session expressed gratitude to CEP and WMO for their expressed readiness to
render the financial help in improvement of functioning of the system of
reception, both exchange of the data and information on a condition and
pollution of natural environment in the Caspian Region.
8. The information on a course of preparation of the
project IPM&IS. The expected contribution of the CaspHYCOS project proposal
The session considered the report of Mr L.Michaud,
the WMO representative on mobilization of resources, about measures undertaken
for the accounting period on promotion of the project IPM&IS (the report of
Mr. L.Michaud is submitted in the Annex 14).
In a discussion on the report of Mr. L. Michaud, the
session emphasized the necessity to speed up realization of procedures on
promotion of the project IPM&IS.
With this purpose the Session addressed to the Heads
of NMHSs of the Azerbaijan Republic, Islamic Republic of Iran, Republic of
Kazakhstan and Russian Federation to probably coordinate short term in the
project document IPM&IS to the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the
respective countries and to inform the WMO General Secretary and the CASPCOM
Chairman of the results of that coordination.
The participants of the session, taking into account
a complex character of the basic tasks of the project document of IPM&IS
and essential volumes of necessary financing, came to the conclusion, that the
practical realization of this project requires revealing priority stages and
directions within the framework of activities under this project.
In this connection, the session recommended to the
CASPCOM Chairman together with the
CASPAS Coordinator and WMO Secretariat to send the approved proposals on
realization of the most priority subprojects formulated in the IPM&IS
project proposal for presenting them in the headquarters of the European Union
with the purpose of making financial support of their realization to the WMO
Secretariat.
The participants of
the session when discussing a possible contribution of CASPIAN-HYCOS to the solution of maintenance
tasks by the operative information in the field of hydrometeorology and
monitoring of pollution of the Caspian Sea, emphasized that the concept of the
WHYCOS foresees fresh water resources assessment activity in rivers of all Caspian Sea basin.
Therefore when formulating possible proposals, related to the CASPIAN_HYCOS
within the framework of the CASPAS Programme, it should be taken into account
the specific features of the Caspian Sea basin and the priority of tasks
formulated in the CASPAS Programme.
CASPCOM notes affirmative opinion of Representatives
from all Littoral States about WHYCOS’ activity in the Caspian Region.
9. Issues of the conclusion “ the Agreement on cooperation
of the Caspian Sea States in the field of hydrometeorology and monitoring of
environment of the Caspian Sea ”
On behalf of the Governments of the countries the
President of NMHSs of the Caspian Sea
countries: Dr А.М.Noorian, the President of IRIMO (Islamic Republic
of Iran), Dr.
T.K.Kudekov, Director General of RGP “Kazhydromet” (Republic of Kazakhstan) and
Dr A.I.Bedritskiy, Chief of Roshydromet (Russian Federation) – put the initials on the text of the above-stated
Agreement.
Dr M.R. Mansimov, the chief of the delegation of the
Azerbaijan Republic, Vice-President of Azgoscomhydromet, welcomed putting the
initials on the specified Agreement and he
expressed the view that the Azerbaijan Republic would take all measures
for completing the approval procedure by governmental bodies and joining the
Agreement.
10. Issue of acceptance “ of the Memorandum of
understanding between the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and
Coordinating Committee on Hydrometeorology and Pollution Monitoring of the Caspian Sea (CASPCOM) ”
Concerning this document Dr. Zaitsev delivered his
speech. He proposed to send the text to Geneva to improve text translation. The
Heads of the NMHSs of the Caspian littoral countries after a short discussion
and small corrections as a whole approved “ the Memorandum of understanding
between the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and Coordinating Committee
on Hydrometeorology and Pollution Monitoring of the Caspian Sea (CASPCOM) ”.
The Session took a decision to direct the Memorandum to WMO Secretariat through
the Chairman of the Committee.
11. Issue of acceptance of the Memorandum of
understanding between the Coordinating Committee on Hydrometeorology and
Monitoring of Pollution of the Caspian Sea (CASPCOM) and Steering Committee of
the Caspian Environment Program (CEP) ”
Commenting on this question Dr. А.I Bedritskiy
made a statement. He informed the participants, that the given Agreement was
prepared by Russia. The activity of CEP is dealing with a wide spectrum of
socio-economic and nature protection problems in the Caspian Sea region. All
the Caspian Sea countries and international organizations seek to the most
effectiveness of CEP, bearing in mind, that the funds allocated for that
Programme are to be concentrated to the solution of tasks in priority
directions. There is a close interconnection between CEP structures and
CASPCOM, because CEP is one of the end-users of data and information, received
by NMHSs of the Caspian Sea countries within the framework of national
activities and within the CASPAS Programme. The receipt of hydrometeorological
data and information, as well as data and information on environment pollution
in the Caspian Sea, the implementation of appropriate projects in those fields,
such as the creation of data bases and data banks, demands a single
methodology, unified approaches, programmes, etc. That is namely the work,
which is done by NMHSs of the Caspian Sea countries. Therefore a close
cooperation between CASPCOM and CEP will make it possible to solve important
tasks, to combine efforts in that direction.
Namely the above approach which Roshydromet had in
mind when proposing to sign the Memorandum of Understanding by CASPCOM and CEP,
in which there will be defined the sphere of competence of both organizations
and the basis for their cooperation.
On this question Dr. M. Mansimov deliverd his
speech. He noted the importance of such a cooperation, however CEP issolving
some questions not absolutely correct.
CEP needs to better cooperate with the national services.
As a whole, the representative of the Azerbaijan Republic
supported this Memorandum. Other participants of the 5th session accepted active participation in a
discussion of this question. A number of remarks and suggestions were proposed.
In view of all corrections, Heads of the NMHSs of the Caspian Littoral countries approved “the Memorandum of
Understanding between Coordinating Committee on Hydrometeorology and Monitoring
of Pollution of the Caspian Sea (CASPCOM) and Steering Committee of the Caspian
Environment Program (CEP) ”.
The decision was taken to submit the “Memorandum”
for approval by the CEP Steering Committee session (Almaty, October, 2000).
12. The draft Appeal of prof. G.O.P. Obasi to oil
companies
The Session noted that one of the major reasons of
unsatisfactory state of observation and studies on the Caspian Sea is the lack
of budgetary financing for restoration and modernization of considerably cut in
recent years hydrometeorological observation network and the network for the
Caspian Sea pollution monitoring.
In this connection the Session recognized necessary
to take urgent steps to organize cooperation with many oil companies, working
on the Caspian Sea, which need reliable hydroometeorological information and
information on Caspian environment pollution in order to solve their production
and nature protection tasks.
The Session asked the WMO Secretary General to
approach heads of those oil companies with the proposal to take part in
realization of a long-term CASPAS Programme, aimed at the provision of various
end-users with data and information on the state of the Caspian environment and
its pollution. In the draft Appeal of the WMO Secretary General to oil
companies, adopted by the Session, it is provided for, to establish a special
Trust Fund for realization of the CASPAS Programme; that Fund will be managed
by WMO in accordance with the rules, adopted in the UN system. As a first step
to develop cooperation with oil companies the draft Appeal proposed to organize
in the Caspian Sea countries a number of roving seminars (“round tables”), on
which the NMHSs of the Caspian Sea countries will submit to oil companies a
specific programme in data and information on the state of the Caspian
environment and its pollution.
The Session also asked the WMO Secretariat to submit
to the UN Fund for international partnership (UNFIP) or other related funds of
the project document: “Combining efforts of the state and private sectors in
protecting the unique and vulnerable ecosystem of the Caspian Sea”, the results
of which would significantly contribute to the development of cooperation
between NMHSs of the Caspian Sea countries and the private sector.
As a separate item under " Any other Matters
", the delegation of Islamic Republic of Iran made a proposal to include
in the Agenda of the 6th CASPCOM session
for discussion of the following
questions:
1.
Establishment of closer relation between CASPCOM and the scientific centres ;
2.Cooperation
arrangement with non- governmental organizations, engaged in problems of
environment protection in the Caspian Sea;
3. Pollution monitoring of the Caspian sea;
4.Environment
protection problems in view of interests of all the Caspian Sea Countries.
Having
considered the above proposals, the session asked the Iranian Side to prepare
them, by the 6th session on detailed proposals.
Dr. A.I. Bedritskiy, the
Head of Roshydromet, proposed that the
6th session of the Coordinating Committee on Hydrometeorology and
Pollution Monitoring of the Caspian Sea (CASPCOM) be held in Russia in
September - October 2001. All participants of the session have supported that
proposal.
It was agreed that the hosting country inform
Littoral States of the exact date and place of the 6th session
through Chairman of the Committee.
At
the end, Dr. T.K.Kudekov, the Director General of RGP “Kazhydromet”,
congratulated all, on the successful work completion. It was marked, that the
participants have completely executed the planned program of the session and
have reached the consent on all the issues . The work of the fifth session was
constructive: the three Caspian Sea States put initials on the Agreement, all
the paragraphs of two Memorandums between WMO, CEP and CASPCOM were discussed
in details and adopted. The discussion of these memoranda testifies that all the Caspian Littoral States
are united by safety care of a unique
natural complex of the Caspian Sea. Dr. T.K. Kudekov thanked all for an active
participation in the work of the session and wished fruitful work on putting in
practice the achieved arrangements. Dr. T.K. Kudekov assumed, that with the help of the
CASPCOM the National Hydrometeorological Services of the Caspian Coast States
can see its production through to the high level. It will allow more qualified
service of the petroleum companies and other consumers of the
hydrometeorological information. The 5-th session has shown, that the CASPCOM activities are extremely
important. Dr. T.K.Kudekov expressed the hope, that the following session will be even more fruitful. He wished all the peace, success, health and mutual
understanding.
Dr. M.R.Mansimov, the Chief of a delegation of the
Azerbaijan Republic, Vice-President of Azgoscomhydromet expressed his gratitude
to the leadership of the Republic of Kazakhstan for having the work done. Dr M.R.Mansimov has large hopes for solving of all the tasks,
put on the 5-th session. The Secretariat of session was given a special
gratitude.
Dr A.I. Bedritskiy, the chief of Roshydromet of the
Russian Federation thanked the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the
management of the RGP “Kazhydromet” for the preparation and realization of the
Session. He noted a high level of organizational work.
Dr A.M. Noorian, the Chairman of the CASPCOM - Vice-Minister
of Roads & Transportation and President of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Meteorological Organization (IRIMO) thanked the Government of the Republic of
Kazakhstan for hospitality. He noted, that the work of the session
was very fruitful. Dr. A.M. Noorian also, expressed the special gratitude to
Dr. T.K Kudekov, the Director General of RGP “Kazhydromet”, to the organizers
of the session, to the secretariat and the interpreters. The separate words of
gratitude were stated to Dr A. Zaitsev, Dr S. Gunn, Dr L. Michaud.
Dr A.M. Noorian
wished to all a safe return home.
The session is concluded its work at 17:30 on 6
September 2000 in Almaty.
*************