TEHRAN – The deputy chairman of the Environmental Protection Organization, Mohammad-Baqer Nabavi, stated on Saturday that pollutants in the Caspian Sea have started increasing.

Talking to the Mehr News Agency, he said pollutants are being poured into the Caspian Sea from all around.
The Caspian Sea is an enclosed body of water and as a result it doesn’t purify itself like free waters, he noted.
As the sea has no outlet to world oceans, the inflow of these pollutants makes the sea more susceptible to damage, Nabavi explained.
He went on to say that today states should be worried about the sea’s eco-system more than before.
The ecological threats have made littoral states to follow environmental degradation through the Tehran convention, Nabavi added.
Tehran Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea was signed by all five nations surrounding the Caspian Sea in November 2003.
Being the first regional legally binding instrument signed by all five Caspian littoral states, the Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea serves as an overarching framework laying down the general requirements and the institutional mechanism for environmental protection in the Caspian region.
Tehran Convention is finalizing different protocols to protect the sea in its next meeting which will take place from 24-26 November 2010 in Astana, Kazakhstan.