Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Water Dispute: Environmentalists/Ombudsman Concerned Over Law On Lak

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Water Dispute: Environmentalists/Ombudsman Concerned Over Law On Lak

    WATER DISPUTE: ENVIRONMENTALISTS/OMBUDSMAN CONCERNED OVER LAW ON LAKE SEVAN
    By Gohar Abrahamyan

    ArmeniaNow
    18.07.12 | 15:08

    Amendments to legislation that allow additional drainage from Lake
    Sevan are in the focus of environmentalists and Armenia's ombudsman.

    This summer amendments to RA Law "On Establishing Annual and Complex
    Program for Restoration, Protection, Reproduction and Use of Lake
    Sevan Ecosystems" were adopted, under which in 2012, annual water
    outlets from Lake Sevan will be increased from 170 million cubic
    meters to 320 million cubic meters.

    State officials consider the new bill to be necessary and nonhazardous,
    and the Ministry of Nature Protection claims that the additional
    water outlet from Lake Sevan will not result in the decrease of the
    lake level. But environmentalists consider taking even one cubic
    meter of water from the lake to be unacceptable and believe that
    additional water outlets from Lake Sevan are not connected with
    lack of water. The bill's critics say it is done because the rise
    in Lake Sevan's level will cause damage to hotels and restaurants,
    which belong to a number of officials.

    Levon Azizyan, head of Hydrology Center of Haypethydromet Service
    stated last week that the snowy winter and rainy spring were followed
    by gradual rise in temperature, there was no intensive snow melting,
    which caused less lake water.

    "During the recent years the level of Lake Sevan has been rising by 50
    centimeters as a result of spring thaw, however this year it rose only
    by 23 centimeters. It is linked with only 50 percent of precipitations
    in April-May. These precipitations were quite few and they did not
    affect the water flow [to Lake Sevan] significantly," Azizyan said.

    Armenian Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) Karen Andreasyan also voiced
    his concerns over the Sevan issue and made a statement which says:
    "The ignorance of set procedural rules in case of decision-making in
    environmental matters is impermissible, which result in the violation
    of information accessibility, transparency of decision-making, public
    participation principles. The draft amendments to legislation on
    Lake Sevan were adopted hastily, without organizing public hearings,
    without publishing the viewpoints of interested ministries and bodies,
    without submitting to the Human Rights Defender's office."

Working...
X