Մատչելիության հղումներ

Armenian Government To Tap Vital Lake For Emergency Irrigation


Armenia - Lake Sevan.
Armenia - Lake Sevan.

Ignoring serious concerns voiced by environmentalists, the Armenian parliament allowed the government on Tuesday to significantly increase this year the amount of water from Lake Sevan used for irrigation.

The vast mountainous lake, which is vital for Armenia’s entire ecosystem, is a key source of irrigation water supplied to the fruit-growing Ararat Valley west and south of Yerevan through the Hrazdan river flowing out of it. It also fuels the country’s second most important hydroelectric complex built along the river in Soviet times.

An Armenian law allows the government to use no more than 170 million cubic meters of Sevan’s water annually for irrigation and power generation purposes. The government asked the National Assembly to raise that cap by 100 million cubic meters for the current irrigation season, citing decreased rainfall in 2017.

Presenting a relevant bill to lawmakers, the head of the State Committee on Water Resources, Arsen Harutiunian, said that around 130,000 farmers are now risking serious water shortages that could have devastating consequences for their crops.

Armenia’s leading environment protection groups are strongly opposed to the urgent measure sought by the government. They say that it would reverse a more than decade-long rise in Sevan’s water level seen as critical for saving its endangered ecosystem.

Armenia - A sailboat on Lake Sevan.
Armenia - A sailboat on Lake Sevan.

Significantly, the Armenian Ministry of Environment Protection has added its voice to these concerns, formally objecting to the proposed additional use of the lake’s water. It estimates that Sevan’s level would fall by 8 centimeters as a result.

“[The government plans] will have an impact on the ecosystem,” admitted Harutiunian. “But the problem which we are highlighting is much more important,” he said, referring to the struggling agricultural sector.

Harutiunian also argued that Sevan’s level rose by 16 centimeters in 2015 and another 18 centimeters last year mainly because of water pumped into the lake from other rivers through two underground canals. The lake will therefore have more water than it did in 2016 even after the emergency irrigation supply, the official said before the parliament approved the bill in the first reading.

Only three deputies, all of them representing the opposition Yelk alliance, voted against the measure. One of them, Lena Nazarian, said that instead of seeking a heavier use of Sevan’s water the government should have cut back on a continuing waste of irrigation water. She said that the irrigation networks remain highly inefficient despite large amounts of budgetary funds that have been allocated in recent years for their rehabilitation.

Harutiunian acknowledged that as much as 55 percent of irrigation water is lost before reaching farmers.

Facebook Forum

XS
SM
MD
LG