ArmInfo.The Armenian government approved amendments to the law on the approval of the annual and comprehensive programs of measures to restore, preserve, reproduce and use the ecosystem of Lake Sevan at a meeting on August 23. According to the Minister of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources of the Republic of Armenia Artur Grigoryan, the bill, which in due course will be sent to the National Assembly and considered at an extraordinary session of the parliament on August 28, provides for increasing the water intake from Lake Sevan from the current 170 million to 210 million cubic meters. , according to the minister, is necessary to provide farmers with sufficient volumes of irrigation water.
He also said that CJSC International Energy Corporation, which uses lake water as fuel for the Sevan-Hrazdan cascade of HPPs, as well as CJSC "Electric Networks of Armenia, undertake to channel all of its proceeds from the use of additional 40 million cubic meters of water to to the non-budgetary fund of the government.In the past year, the minister continued, from the lake an additional 100 million cubic meters of water was produced, which allowed to accumulate 1.6 billion drams in the off- budget fund, the minister said, environmental problems of Sevan, including the construction of new water treatment plants, Arthur Grigoryan also said that from April 1, 2019 the lake will receive 250 million cubic meters of water annually on the renovated Arpa-Sevan tunnel, thus covering the water releases in 2017 Meanwhile, as Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan noted, today's decision is taken by the members of the government with a heavy heart so as not to harm the villagers.He stressed that the discussed issue is one of the most problems, his decision was preceded by a month and a half learning. "The discussions were stormy, and as a result of them it became clear that there are risks of creating a deadlock for agriculture," the head of the Armenian government said, adding that the situation is deadlocked for the authorities. "The irrigation system raises a lot of questions, and it is necessary to understand whether there are statements about the existence of a water mafia, if it is so, then it must capitulate as soon as possible," said Nikol Pashinyan. He also called not to treat Sevan as a water container, but to look for other opportunities, in connection with which an operational group will be created. The prime minister also instructed to study the situation in fish farms using huge volumes of water, especially from artesian wells, as well as to identify "shadow gardens", of which much is said.
In turn, the Minister of Nature Protection Eric Grigoryan noted that the water potential of Armenia is 7 billion cubic meters, of which about 2 billion cubic meters of water is needed. In this regard, Grigoryan sees the solution of the issue in the effective management of the country's water resources. Earlier, the chairman of the NGO "Association for Sustainable Development" Karine Danielyan noted that the current state of Lake Sevan is not an accident. "I take it like a lake cry for help, we have been sounding alarm for years: if we continue to treat Sevan like this, instead of a lake we will have a swamp, and water will not be suitable even for irrigation." Now we are faced with this problem. The active reproduction of blue-green algae is an indicator that the lake is actively approaching water logging.In that part of the water where there is active flowering, there are also poisonous substances, "she noted. The ecologist indicated that Lake Sevan has been in conflict with the flowering process since 1964, every 2-3 years, but never the scale was the same as now. Karine Danielyan explained that the flowering in the lake is due to several factors: biological, lack of physicochemical water treatment stations, these stations failed after the collapse of the USSR, as well as a decrease in the water level in the lake and high air temperature. "Every year, we raise the issue of inadmissibility of solving irrigation problems at the expense of water releases from Lake Sevan." If we lose Sevan, we will lose Armenia, "added K. Danielyan.