OREANDA-NEWS. February 7, 2008. The first regional seminar on water quality monitoring in the Caspian Sea started in Ashkhabad. Organized by the Ministry of Nature Protection of Turkmenistan and EU/TACIS under the Caspian Environmental Programme (CEP) the forum brought together the ecological experts, the specialists of the international organisations and foreign oil companies. The representatives of the littorals states – Azerbaijan, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation arrived in Ashkhabad to participate in the seminar.

The Caspian Environment Programme (CEP) is aimed at sustainable development of the marine environment including biological resources and water quality, protecting human health and ecological integrity for the sake of future generations.

The CEP's mission is to assist the Caspian littoral states to achieve the goal of environmentally sustainable development and management of the Caspian environment for the sake of long-term benefit for the Caspian inhabitants.

The Caspian Environment Programme (CEP) is a regional umbrella programme aiming to halt the deterioration of environmental conditions of the Caspian Sea and to promote sustainable development in the area.

The CEP was born out of a long desire for regional cooperation, expressed through a number of regional agreements. CEP was launched in 1998 with the participation of all the littoral countries and support from GEF and the European Union, which is focused on assistance to the littoral countries towards design and implementation of the Regional Water Quality Monitoring Program, coordination of the regional hot spot plan and priority environmental investment programmes. The project priorities include assessment of the pollution level, identification of the sources of pollution and the zones of organic contamination and the content of organic pollutants. The project provides for a series of the seminars for local experts.

Exchanging the views the participants discussed the issues of particular importance including water pollution control, monitoring emissions producing an adverse impact on the marine environment and presenting health hazard, the preventive measures to mitigate the risk of pollution as an effect of industrial accidents and natural disasters were the key agenda items.

The interlocutors agreed that the need in the participatory approaches to protection and management of the Caspian environment and its resources was an ongoing issue for the Caspian States and world community as well. Being an active participant of the international ecological dialogue Turkmenistan makes every effort in order to fill the dialogue with the specific content and to make it more successive and constructive.