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Data sources:

Data was provided by National Environmental Agency of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture under the ENI SEIS II East project activities

Note: Distribution of river monitoring sites to BOD5 (left) and ammonium concentration (right) classes in the two major river basins of Georgia (Black Sea and Caspian Sea basins), based on average of the annual mean concentrations for 2016-2018. The total number of monitoring sites per river basin is given in parenthesis.

The class system is the same as the one used in the EEA indicator WAT 002- Oxygen consuming substances European rivers. See the indicator specification section there for further information.

All river sites have average BOD below the maximum permissible concentration of 6 mg O2/l. Moreover, only two sites in the Caspian Sea basin have BOD above the stricter criteria set in the EU Directive 78/659/EEC for salmonid fish (3 mg O2/l).

For ammonium the highest concentrations are observed for rivers in the Black Sea basin, probably reflecting the so far poor level of waste-water treatment in this region. 79% of the sites in this region had average concentration above the maximum permissible concentration (0.39 mg NH4-N/l) in 2016-2018. Moreover, this level is quite high in comparison with e.g. the recommended levels in the EU Directive 78/659/EEC (cyprinid fish: 0.16 mg NH4-N/l; salmonid fish: 0.03 NH4-N/l). Only three river sites in Georgia had average concentration below the threshold for cyprinid fish in 2016-2018, and none were below the threshold for salmonid fish.