Tweet
ARMENIA'S GREENS TAKE ON HYDRO SCHEMES
Environment News Sector
dec 20 2013
By Gayane Lazarian
YEREVAN, Armenia, December 19, 2013 (ENS) - Environmentalists in
Armenia say a strategy of building multiple hydroelectric stations
to harness the country's rivers is storing up problems for the future.
Armenia lacks oil and gas reserves and is trying to develop
hydroelectric power as a way of reducing its reliance on fuel imports.
Ecologists, however, say that damming up rivers destroys waterways
and the unique ecosystems they support.
In one recent case of direct action, environmental activists joined
residents of the village of Marts in the northern Lori region on
November 17 to protest against plans to build a third power station
on a river there. They blocked a major highway, causing traffic chaos,
but left before police could arrive to disperse them.
Near Marts village, Lori region, Armenia (Photo by Artyom Hovsepyan)
"Rivers are being turned into pipelines," said Levon Galstyan of the
All-Armenian Ecological Front. "No public consultations were organised
in the village [Marts], and people's interests have been ignored."
Liparit Simonyan, director of Martz Energy, the company in charge of
the dam project, said its activities were entirely within the law.
"There's a sense that it isn't the locals protesting, but a group
of activists representing some outside forces. They are spreading
false information and setting people against one another other,"
Simonyan told reporters.
"We are spending money; we are creating jobs," he added.
Robert Galstyan, the village head in Marts, confirmed that the company
was going to employ seven locals and had promised to provide the
village with street lighting and a mains gas supply.
Karen Harutiunyan, an activist from the environmentalist group 100
Point, said claims of public consultation were untrue since the
majority of local residents were clearly against the scheme.
In a separate development, villagers in the western Aragatsotn region
turned out to protest against work on a fourth power station on the
river Amberd.
Local resident Sasun Hayrapetyan said that villagers in the area
would lose their water supplies.
"This hydropower station is being built next to us without any
consultation," she said.
Armenia has gone from having just 11 small hydroelectric power
plants in 1997 to 137 small hydro power plants today, with another
77 being built. It also has bigger plants arranged in series of two,
or "cascades," Sevan-Hrazdan and Vorotan.
The construction drive is underpinned by a 2004 law which assumes
that dams on mountain rivers could meet around 30 percent of Armenia's
electricity needs.
Some existing dams are not in service like this Communist Era dam
and power station (Photo by Michael Sakr)
That is still some distance away. As Aram Gabrielyan, head of
electricity supplies at the energy ministry, points out, nuclear power
provided 28 percent of the country's power last year, 42 percent was
generated by gas-fired stations, and most of the rest by hydroelectric
plants.
Galstyan said the government's strategy is all wrong.
"Construction of hydroelectric power stations has reached such a level
that in 20 or 30 years' time, this state will be facing a social and
ecological catastrophe," he said. "There will be power stations on
90 percent of rivers, and in the dry season they will all dry up."
Inga Zarafyan of Ecolur agrees that the threat was real, warning that
"the number of sick rivers is constantly rising."
"Twelve power stations have been built on the river Yeghegis, another
nine are to be built on the Meghri river, and six more on the Getik
and Marts, and also on rivers that feed Lake Sevan," she said.
"The biggest is being built on the Argichi, with nine kilometres of
pipes and four ten-megawatt turbines," said Zarafyan. "We are scared
to imagine what will be left of that river."
Inessa Gabayan, national coordinator of an Armenian-Norwegian project
to develop small hydroelectric power plants, urged local residents
to contribute constructively rather than just objecting to them.
"The aim of our project is to identify problems and secure stable
development in this sector," she explained. "I believe new technologies
can resolve the problems."
http://ens-newswire.com/2013/12/19/armenias-greens-take-on-hydro-schemes/
From: Baghdasarian
Environment News Sector
dec 20 2013
By Gayane Lazarian
YEREVAN, Armenia, December 19, 2013 (ENS) - Environmentalists in
Armenia say a strategy of building multiple hydroelectric stations
to harness the country's rivers is storing up problems for the future.
Armenia lacks oil and gas reserves and is trying to develop
hydroelectric power as a way of reducing its reliance on fuel imports.
Ecologists, however, say that damming up rivers destroys waterways
and the unique ecosystems they support.
In one recent case of direct action, environmental activists joined
residents of the village of Marts in the northern Lori region on
November 17 to protest against plans to build a third power station
on a river there. They blocked a major highway, causing traffic chaos,
but left before police could arrive to disperse them.
Near Marts village, Lori region, Armenia (Photo by Artyom Hovsepyan)
"Rivers are being turned into pipelines," said Levon Galstyan of the
All-Armenian Ecological Front. "No public consultations were organised
in the village [Marts], and people's interests have been ignored."
Liparit Simonyan, director of Martz Energy, the company in charge of
the dam project, said its activities were entirely within the law.
"There's a sense that it isn't the locals protesting, but a group
of activists representing some outside forces. They are spreading
false information and setting people against one another other,"
Simonyan told reporters.
"We are spending money; we are creating jobs," he added.
Robert Galstyan, the village head in Marts, confirmed that the company
was going to employ seven locals and had promised to provide the
village with street lighting and a mains gas supply.
Karen Harutiunyan, an activist from the environmentalist group 100
Point, said claims of public consultation were untrue since the
majority of local residents were clearly against the scheme.
In a separate development, villagers in the western Aragatsotn region
turned out to protest against work on a fourth power station on the
river Amberd.
Local resident Sasun Hayrapetyan said that villagers in the area
would lose their water supplies.
"This hydropower station is being built next to us without any
consultation," she said.
Armenia has gone from having just 11 small hydroelectric power
plants in 1997 to 137 small hydro power plants today, with another
77 being built. It also has bigger plants arranged in series of two,
or "cascades," Sevan-Hrazdan and Vorotan.
The construction drive is underpinned by a 2004 law which assumes
that dams on mountain rivers could meet around 30 percent of Armenia's
electricity needs.
Some existing dams are not in service like this Communist Era dam
and power station (Photo by Michael Sakr)
That is still some distance away. As Aram Gabrielyan, head of
electricity supplies at the energy ministry, points out, nuclear power
provided 28 percent of the country's power last year, 42 percent was
generated by gas-fired stations, and most of the rest by hydroelectric
plants.
Galstyan said the government's strategy is all wrong.
"Construction of hydroelectric power stations has reached such a level
that in 20 or 30 years' time, this state will be facing a social and
ecological catastrophe," he said. "There will be power stations on
90 percent of rivers, and in the dry season they will all dry up."
Inga Zarafyan of Ecolur agrees that the threat was real, warning that
"the number of sick rivers is constantly rising."
"Twelve power stations have been built on the river Yeghegis, another
nine are to be built on the Meghri river, and six more on the Getik
and Marts, and also on rivers that feed Lake Sevan," she said.
"The biggest is being built on the Argichi, with nine kilometres of
pipes and four ten-megawatt turbines," said Zarafyan. "We are scared
to imagine what will be left of that river."
Inessa Gabayan, national coordinator of an Armenian-Norwegian project
to develop small hydroelectric power plants, urged local residents
to contribute constructively rather than just objecting to them.
"The aim of our project is to identify problems and secure stable
development in this sector," she explained. "I believe new technologies
can resolve the problems."
http://ens-newswire.com/2013/12/19/armenias-greens-take-on-hydro-schemes/
From: Baghdasarian