EcoLur
The Minister of Environment of the Republic of Armenia by Decree No. 353 as of October 25, 2019, rejected the water use permit submitted by Lydian Armenia CJSC for Amulsar mine development, as the Ministry informed about it to the Armenian Environmental Front volunteer initiative.
“The Minister's decree specifically states that the examination of the application has revealed that there are other water users from the Darb River and its catchment area. To determine the actual situation, the Ministry conducted a river flow examination in Darb River at the Company's water intake in October, which revealed that the actual river flow did not exceed the Darb River environmental flow calculated for October (150 liters per second).
According to Article 24, Part 5 of the RA Water Code, “Meeting the requirements of water users at the expense of environmental flows is prohibited”. And pursuant to Article 30.1 (2) of the same law, the application for a water use permit is rejected, “if the water resources are insufficient to grant a water use permit, or the required water use permit does not meet the requirements of national water reserve protection or water standards.
Taking into account the fact that the Darb River free flow is not sufficient for the requested water use, the Minister ordered to reject 1,244 million cubic meters of river water annually for industrial purposes 24/7 as requested by the Lydian Armenia water use permit application,” the press release disseminated by the AEF says.
October 30, 2019 at 17:58