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Chai Khana Print Book
Chai Khana Print Book
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Zod is Dying in Silence

Author: Piruza Khalapyan

Zod is Dying in Silence
Edition: Environment
Archive

The photo story you are reading is part of the Chai Khana archive. From 2015 to 2025, Chai Khana covered the South Caucasus, sharing stories from Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.

Though this small town called Zod is amid 2 huge factories, all the locals are choking on the dusty air and have devastating health problems.

Zod was constructed in 1970, for the workers of the gold factory. The cyanide from the factory and the dust from the cement factory, has poisoned the locals beyond retrieve; lung issues are common in all ages.
In this place, there was once a pool for the kids. It was closed due to the lack of water.
In the houses, one can always smell rotten water.
A new school was being built here until they run out of money. The ghost building is still here.
Will the younger generation stay in Zod?
Children here have really nothing to do; there is neither a playground nor a cultural house or even a library.
Children play wherever is possible; there is no playground in the town.
Life here goes slowly.
The roads in the town are in very poor conditions. The storage is in the ground-floor, and because of problems with sewage, there is putrid water under the buildings.
Children are used to the stench of the putrid water in the building entrances.
The elder generation is unemployed.
Grisha was a part of the volunteer brigade from Zod. He was wounded during the battle near the village Talish in 1994.
A cross-stone in the memory of those volunteers from Zod, who died in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.