Baku (AsiaNews) - Azerbaijan is drawing attention to the problem of the falling water level of the Caspian Sea. According to the Azerbaijan Caspian Sea Shipping Company (Asco), the drop in the Caspian Sea’s water level is creating new challenges for maritime transport.
The problem is indeed having a negative impact on transportation, said Alakbar Azizli, director of sustainable development and emissions management at ASCO, on the sidelines of the Baku Climate Action Week 2026 (BCAW 2026).
Azizli noted that the volume of water in the Caspian Sea is decreasing by more than 20 cm each year, a problem that requires extending piers and deepening channels. “If the water level continues to drop, we will not only have to deepen the channels but also extend the piers; for us, as a shipping company, ensuring safe navigation is particularly important under these conditions,” the director said.
Asco is therefore revising its nautical charts and promptly informing captains of any necessary changes. Azerbaijan’s State Maritime Administration is providing significant support in this regard, as the key measures in light of the progressively falling water level of the Caspian Sea remain the timely exchange of information and increased attention to navigation safety.
The phenomenon of falling water levels, however, does not only cause problems and concerns: a new island of breathtaking natural beauty has been discovered in the Caspian Sea off the coast of Kazakhstan. It is located 500 meters east of Svjatoj Island and about 30 kilometers from the village of Bautino in the Mangistau region, as announced by Erbolat Mukhašov, founder of the Kazakh travel agency Caspian Holiday. Over the past five years, new islands have begun to form in the northern part of the Caspian Sea, near the islands inhabited by Caspian seals. This phenomenon is directly linked to the drop in sea level, Mukhašov told the website Lada.kz.
The new islands are mostly uninhabited, but wolves, wild boars, and badgers occasionally appear there, the travel agency director added. The consequences of the general drop in water levels, moreover, are evident throughout the region. For example, the dry riverbed of the strait between the Agrakhan Peninsula and Čečen Island is covered with a carpet of flowering grasses, while in higher-elevation areas, desertification is occurring, with the disappearance of many plant species and the emergence of dunes, according to the Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The level of the Caspian Sea has been falling since the mid-1990s and reached a historic low in 2025, with a drop of 29 meters. In 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin had instructed the government to develop a program to prevent the seabed from flattening, and in 2025, the presidents of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, Ilham Aliyev and Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev, publicly denounced the risk of an environmental disaster for the entire region, which—due to conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, as well as sanctions against Russia and Iran—is becoming an increasingly strategic corridor for the transport of goods and people.
