EcoLur
Poor management affects the water supply in Sevan communities because of the SHPPs constructed on the rivers flowing into Lake Sevan and because of unfair distribution of water springs in the Sevan basin, i.e. their actual seizure by people in power.
In 2017 the situation with the poor water supply deteriorated because of abnormally high temperature and unfavorable weather conditions. Water problems started emerging in the villages: one of the conflicts is escalating in Astghadzor Village. The village has been deprived of the water to improve the water supply in neighboring Zolaqar Village. Martuni Women's Council helped the villagers to hold the discussion of this problem in order to find a way out of this situation. EcoLur also took part in this meeting.
This is what the villager said: President of Martuni Women's Council Anahit Gevorgyan, 'What happened is highly unjust towards to Astghadzor residents. Without asking them they were deprived of what belongs to them without allotting any share in the water supply.'
Astghadzor residents, '...I went to the village head before the elections and told him we need water from the natural springs, while Zolaqar takes this water away – 23.07 l/s or even more. He told me we will be the first to lay pipelines. Several months have passed and I asked him about the progress. He tells me that the half of the water is ours..??!! The water we are currently using is bad. I demanded to carry out analyses of the water, but it's unclear where they took the water from and what they measured. The representatives (of the government) said the water doesn't contain anything dangerous. I'm claiming there are dangerous elements, in the past people said the water contains uranium traces, where have these traces disappeared? 35 wells have been drilled in the search for uranium. As it turned out there is uranium from the section called Manushak to the Getik River. The water belongs to the people. Where we, Astghadzor residents, should take the water from? There are certain people who affected this process. We live next to our neighbors, and if Zolaqar has poor water, our wells also have bad water. Nevertheless, our administration didn't raise this question, didn't protect our interests and our right to water.'
Astghadzor residents have reached a decision to restitute their right to water and to recover the previous water supply schedule the village used to have – to have 7 l/s distributed to Astghadzor. For this purpose, a decision was made to send letters to the bodies, which provided the relevant documents and permits and bear responsibility for the transfer of water from Astghadzor to Zolaqar.
December 10, 2017 at 04:50