Thursday, April 4 2019 10:48

ArmInfo. In 2019, through the hydrotechnical complex Arpa- Sevan, 150-180 million cubic meters of water will flow into Lake Sevan. This was reported to the Minister of  Territorial Administration and Development of the Republic of Armenia  Suren Papikyan, who had taken part in the first releases of water  into Lake Sevan yesterday.

According to the press service of the Ministry of Territorial  Administration and Development of the Republic of Armenia, Suren  Papikyan visited, in particular, Kechut reservoir, where the  responsible persons in detail presented to the minister the technical  and economic description of the water basin, reported on the water  volumes in the reservoir. They assured the minister that the water  volumes in the water basin were brought to a starting point, and in  the coming months the water supply to Lake Sevan will be carried out  uninterruptedly and efficiently.

Then Suren Papikyan visited the section of the Arpa-Sevan water  tunnel in the Yeghegis area. General Director of Arpa-Sevan OJSC  Paruyr Hakobyan informed the Minister about the work done to increase  the capacity of the tunnel, with the result that, as expected, water  releases to Lake Sevan will double. If at present the volumes of  water transfer through the hydraulic engineering complex Arpa-Sevan  make up a maximum of 14.5 cubic meters per second, then after the  work done, they will amount to 18.5-19.5 cubic meters per second.

Earlier, ArmInfo reported that the construction of the Arpa-Sevan  tunnel is planned to be completed in 2019, which will provide an  opportunity to increase the volume of water entering the lake by  100-150 million cubic meters. Last year, water releases to Sevan  through the tunnel amounted to 92 million cubic meters. As a result,  in 2018 the lake level increased by 30 cm. At present, the level of  Sevan is 1199.7 m.  About 170 million cubic meters of water are taken  from the lake annually for irrigation needs. Currently, work is  underway on the construction of four large reservoirs, which will  eliminate these fences from the lake. It should be noted that the  length of the hydraulic engineering complex Arpa-Sevan is 48.3  kilometers. Its construction began in the 1960s. The penetration was  completed in 1981. The tunnel starts at the Kechut reservoir on the  river Arpa and flows into Lake Sevan near the village of Artsvanist.  Lake Sevan is the main source of drinking water in the region, one of  the largest alpine lakes in Europe and Asia, located in the heart of  the Armenian Highlands, at an altitude of 1914 meters. In length,  from the north- west to the south-east, the lake stretches over 70  kilometers, and its water surface reaches almost 1,5 thousand square  kilometers. The only source originating from the lake is the Hrazdan  River (a tributary of the Araks), with 28 rivers flowing into it, the  total basin area of which is 2,776 sq. Kilometers. By 2030, the lake  level will be raised to the optimum 1903.5 m.