Epress.am News from Armenia
For years, two Aragatsotn marz villages, Yeghnik and Shgharshik, have battled over the scarcity of drinking water but can no longer resolve the issue among themselves. Yesterday, Yeghnik village residents blocked off the Yerevan-Gyumri highway demanding to speak to the Prime Minister or one of his representatives. However, Shgharshik residents considered that move to be a wrong one and are open to negotiations. The two villages receive water from the same source, and Shgharshik residents often close the water pipes going to their neighboring village.
The Aragatsotn Governor’s Public Relations Department Head, Satenik Zoryan, told Epress.am that the two villages have to come to an agreement and equally share the water they get.
“It’s not like this issue is a new one for us. The issue is under control of the Governor, who is working on a solution,” said Zoryan.
Yeghnik resident Misak Toroyan told Epress.am, the reason they are demanding the Prime Minister's intervention is that their children are drinking stream water because there is no drinking water.
Shgharshik’s village head Hovhannes Harutyunyan does not consider Yeghnik’s protest to be justified.
“They’ve filled the streets with their women and children. What for? It’s shameful,” said Harutyunyan. According to him, Yeghnik can not demand to receive more water than Shgharshik.
“In Yeghnik, they are presenting exaggerated numbers, they say 500 people live there, at the moment there is almost no one left, their student population is 16, our village is three times bigger than theirs. Despite that, they deal with agriculture and have around 400 hectares of land, while we are a bit more mountainous, at a higher elevation, and we deal with animal husbandry. We can’t give them more water,” said Harutyunyan.
Yesterday, the Aragatsotn Governor Sargis Sahakyan negotiated with the villagers on the highway, who subsequently dispersed, however, the issue still remains unresolved.