Epress.am News from Armenia
With the onset of below freezing temperatures in Yerevan, living conditions have become life threatening for residents of 3 Sisakyan St. Several residents called Epress.am and described how frozen pipes, windows, and balconies, and malfunctioning sewage drainage make maintaining basic hygiene and meeting basic needs impossible.
An Epress.am correspondent went to the building, where residents said it's impossible to wait even until spring; meanwhile, as per the municipality's promises, residents will get new apartments in May 2015.
In the apartments, the Epress.am correspondent saw elderly and lone women, who told her that the drainage pipes are frozen and it's impossible to live in the apartments as the walls are cracked and heaters don't help, which is why they've left their children with relatives.
Living in the building are 104 families, 25 of which will receive apartments in the coming days, while others were asked to wait until 2015. Some of the residents are dissatisfied with the method of distributing the apartments: in their view, those residents who are living in the most dangerous conditions should be given apartments first. Others don't complain, saying that apartments were given to families with many children, and they have nothing against this. However, they are unhappy with city hall, where employees are delaying the process and don't understand that it's not possible to live in inhumane conditions and that "they have acquired a thousand-and-one illnesses."
Residents say that their one-room apartments serve as bedroom, living room, kitchen, and bathroom.
Since the shared bathroom is covered with ice, residents bathe in their rooms. Some say they have acquired various illnesses because of the cold and want to appeal to foreign embassies to ask for asylum in other countries.