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LAKE CONCERNS: GROUP WARNS THAT "ARMENIA'S JEWEL" COULD BE ENDANGERED BY CARELESSNESS
Environment | 27.12.13 | 00:09
Photolure
By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow reporter
The Public Environmental Alliance warns that the government is planning
to implement its "Complex Program for Recovery of Trout Reserves and
Fish Breeding in Lake Sevan", without waiting for the conclusion of
environmental and economic expertise, and potentially exposing the
lake to considerable harm.
The proposed project plans to make the trout production up to 50,000
tons per year by 2023 in nurse ponds. For this purpose 500,000 tons
of artificial forage containing nitrogen and phosphor will be put in
the lake each year.
"These very elements ensure increased fish growth - increase in unit
weight for each unit of forage. We don't have any data of what will
happen with the fish as a result of the artificial forage. Scientific
projects like this are complex, demanding much time and lots of funds.
So far the Institute of Hydroecology and Ichthyology is carrying
out the analysis of forage and analysis of water samples taken from
around nurse ponds to test for pollutants - nitrogen and phosphor. The
available results of water analysis can't replace costly studies
needed for the approval of such programs. On the other hand, nitrogen
and phosphor are the very pollutants triggering water-logging in Lake
Sevan," reads their statement in part.
Member of Public Environmental Alliance, Ecolur NGO leader Inga
Zarafyan says Emmi Fruit company, implementing the project jointly
with the government, has promised to transfer around 23 billion AMD
($57.5 million) to the Fund for Sevan Conservation by 2023.
"We demand to suspend and disapprove the project, which is aimed
supposedly to increase the trout reserve in the lake, but that project
submitted as an environmental one is in fact a business-project
endangering Lake Sevan," she says.
The RA president-adjunct Committee on Lake Sevan Ecosystem Preservation
supports the project. Committee members Bardugh Gabrielyan,
director of National Academy of Sciences Research Center of Biology
and Hydro-Ecology, and For Sustainable Human Development NGO leader
Karine Danielyan, agree, but with a condition that the supervision
will be tightened and a monitoring held.
However, the statement claims the commission has no supervisory
function, it is an advisory structure. If the committee later reaches
a negative conclusion on the project's further development, their
opinion would have no binding effect.
The findings of the monitoring will be unavailable to the public. It
should be noted that even now the committee members refused to
publicize the results of water sampling for pilot fish farm carried
out by the Institute of Hydroecology and Ichthyology. The reason for
refusal to publicize the results is that the studies were commissioned
by "Emmi Fruit" Company and the results are owned by the company.
The content of the project directly contradicts two RA laws "On
Lake Sevan" and "on Preservation of Special Areas" says Khazer
ecological-cultural NGO leader Amalya Harutyunyan. "The ecosystem of
the lake should be restored and water quality improved by means of
increasing the water level and reducing pollution, rather than doing
the opposite," she says.
The alliance is planning to turn to parliament factions and the
Government of Armenia with an appeal to stop the project fraught with
huge risks threatening to destroy the lake, which is the country's
strategic treasury of freshwater.
"If Sevan is destroyed, Armenia won't have anything else to conserve,"
they warn.
http://armenianow.com/society/environment/51136/lake_sevan_ecology_karine_danielyan_fish_breeding
Environment | 27.12.13 | 00:09
Photolure
By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow reporter
The Public Environmental Alliance warns that the government is planning
to implement its "Complex Program for Recovery of Trout Reserves and
Fish Breeding in Lake Sevan", without waiting for the conclusion of
environmental and economic expertise, and potentially exposing the
lake to considerable harm.
The proposed project plans to make the trout production up to 50,000
tons per year by 2023 in nurse ponds. For this purpose 500,000 tons
of artificial forage containing nitrogen and phosphor will be put in
the lake each year.
"These very elements ensure increased fish growth - increase in unit
weight for each unit of forage. We don't have any data of what will
happen with the fish as a result of the artificial forage. Scientific
projects like this are complex, demanding much time and lots of funds.
So far the Institute of Hydroecology and Ichthyology is carrying
out the analysis of forage and analysis of water samples taken from
around nurse ponds to test for pollutants - nitrogen and phosphor. The
available results of water analysis can't replace costly studies
needed for the approval of such programs. On the other hand, nitrogen
and phosphor are the very pollutants triggering water-logging in Lake
Sevan," reads their statement in part.
Member of Public Environmental Alliance, Ecolur NGO leader Inga
Zarafyan says Emmi Fruit company, implementing the project jointly
with the government, has promised to transfer around 23 billion AMD
($57.5 million) to the Fund for Sevan Conservation by 2023.
"We demand to suspend and disapprove the project, which is aimed
supposedly to increase the trout reserve in the lake, but that project
submitted as an environmental one is in fact a business-project
endangering Lake Sevan," she says.
The RA president-adjunct Committee on Lake Sevan Ecosystem Preservation
supports the project. Committee members Bardugh Gabrielyan,
director of National Academy of Sciences Research Center of Biology
and Hydro-Ecology, and For Sustainable Human Development NGO leader
Karine Danielyan, agree, but with a condition that the supervision
will be tightened and a monitoring held.
However, the statement claims the commission has no supervisory
function, it is an advisory structure. If the committee later reaches
a negative conclusion on the project's further development, their
opinion would have no binding effect.
The findings of the monitoring will be unavailable to the public. It
should be noted that even now the committee members refused to
publicize the results of water sampling for pilot fish farm carried
out by the Institute of Hydroecology and Ichthyology. The reason for
refusal to publicize the results is that the studies were commissioned
by "Emmi Fruit" Company and the results are owned by the company.
The content of the project directly contradicts two RA laws "On
Lake Sevan" and "on Preservation of Special Areas" says Khazer
ecological-cultural NGO leader Amalya Harutyunyan. "The ecosystem of
the lake should be restored and water quality improved by means of
increasing the water level and reducing pollution, rather than doing
the opposite," she says.
The alliance is planning to turn to parliament factions and the
Government of Armenia with an appeal to stop the project fraught with
huge risks threatening to destroy the lake, which is the country's
strategic treasury of freshwater.
"If Sevan is destroyed, Armenia won't have anything else to conserve,"
they warn.
http://armenianow.com/society/environment/51136/lake_sevan_ecology_karine_danielyan_fish_breeding