ArmInfo. As of August 26, 2019, compared with the same period last year, 45 million 616 thousand cubic meters less water were taken from Lake Sevan. The Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan announced this on his Facebook page.
"Everything is going to ensure that this year the discharge of water from Lake Sevan will not exceed the threshold established by law (170 million cubic meters-ed. note) And the water level in Sevan will begin to rise," the prime minister wrote.
To recall, on June 6, the government decided that in 2019 water releases from Lake Sevan will not exceed 170 million cubic meters. According to the Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures of the Republic of Armenia Suren Papikyan, the need to draw water from Lake Sevan is due to the need to irrigate 32 thousand hectares of agricultural land in the Armavir, Ararat, Kotayk and Aragatsont regions of the republic. The reservoirs of the republic, as the minister noted, are full, but they are out of the reach of the above areas. The Office will do everything in its power to exclude additional water withdrawals. RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan noted that 170 million cubic meters fit into the volumes stipulated by the current legislation of the country. Nevertheless, as the head of government emphasized, it is necessary to use the lake's waters as efficiently as possible in order to prevent additional releases, even despite the expected heat.