Epress.am News from Armenia
Clogged drainage pipes caused on June 24 major flooding in Artik, a town in Armenia's Shirak province, as a result of which a vast number of families have lost their homes and all their belongings. The Armenian government has already pledged to “properly support” the affected citizens and provide them with appropriate compensation to restore their damages. The family of Bichakhchayns, however, insist that the AMD 4,5 million they were given by the government, plus the additional 500 thousand drams from the Prime Minister himself, doesn't even come close to covering their losses.
“We need double that amount to even try to repair our house. We currently live at our relatives' place and are trying to rent an apartment since it'll take us at least a year to restore the damages,” Silva Bichakhchayn said in conversation with Epress.am. “The house is absolutely destroyed. My son's video equipment, our furniture, firewood – everything is damaged,” the woman added.
Several days ago volunteers from Yerevan left for Artik to help the flood-stricken citizens in the town and nearby villages; today they held a press conference in Yerevan to report that there is a threat of an epidemic in the flood-affected areas.
“There is still dead livestock under water; you can't even begin to imagine the stink in the area. As many as 10 families are in dire conditions since they've lost their houses and their belongings. Most of these houses had only recently been repaired and now they are completely flooded,” volunteer Sofia Hovsepyan said.
Volunteer Maksim Sargsyan added that they had tried to contact Artik mayor Arsen Abrahamyan to discuss the issue but the official “was quite aggressive. He'd say that we were not nearly as concerned about the situation as he was and ask where we were the previous 7 days.”
The volunteers insist that nothing is being done to remove the water from the damaged houses or to actually restore the buildings. “The indifference of the unaffected citizens is also quite perplexing; they are not even willing to help clean the houses for free,” Rima Sargsyan claimed.