BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 8. Cases of
re-contamination of demined areas with mines during floods and
mudslides have been observed in Azerbaijan, Chairman of the Board
of Directors of the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action
(ANAMA), Vugar Suleymanov, said during a high-level roundtable on
"Advantages and Challenges of AI-integration to the Multi-hazard
Early Warning Systems" within the framework of the 4th Baku Climate
Action Week (BCAW), Trend's correspondent reports from the event.
Suleymanov noted that the impact of climate change is also felt
in mine clearance activities.
"Considering the specifics of our activities, we cannot work on
rainy days for safety reasons. Recently, the increase in rainfall
in recent years has undoubtedly had a negative impact on our
activities," he pointed out.
He also noted that cases of re-contamination of cleared areas
with mines during floods and mudslides have been observed several
times.
"River waters, during floods, mines are brought to low-lying
areas with river waters. Of course, this is an alarm for us. We are
already paying attention to these issues and are additionally
inspecting areas after floods and mudslides," the ANAMA chairman
emphasized.
Suleymanov noted that since November 2020, more than 300
thousand hectares of land in Azerbaijan have been cleared of mines
and unexploded ordnance. According to him, as a result of these
clearance operations, about 262,000 mines and unexploded ordnance
were discovered and neutralized.
