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.
