Epress.am News from Armenia
The initiative SOS Sevan held a protest today outside the National Assembly building, urging MPs to vote against a government proposal that environmentalists say would increase drainage from Lake Sevan by 40%.
Participating in the demonstration were not only environmental activists, but also residents of the affected communities. Martuni resident Anahit Gevorgyan, in conversation with Epress.am, said the entire community is against the Lake Sevan proposal.
The residents say they raised their concerns also during the public hearings, but their opinions were not taken into consideration.
"There was no increase in arable land, how did it happen that the water is now not enough for irrigation? It's clear to all of us that the water is being drained in order to maintain the fisheries of Ararat marz [province]," she told Epress.am.
According to Gevorgyan, also harmful is the government's other decision, which plans to increase the supply of trout in Lake Sevan by 50,000 tons of fish by artificial feed in net pens until 2023.
"They'll pour those hormones into the lake and the fish and water quality of all of [Lake] Sevan will change," she said.
Another demonstrator, EcoLur NGO President Inga Zarafyan, considered important the fact that the decision about breeding fish will be brought to parliament. This is unprecedented, though put to a vote in parliament will be only the decision on increasing the volume of water drainage.
According to Zarafyan, the greatest threat is that if the water is drained in such large volumes for 5 consecutive years, the lake will no longer be able to recover.