Authorities attentive to water resources in Armenia – debate

Armenia’s water authorities demonstrate special care for our water resources, environmentalists have said, addressing the problem of hydropower plants in the country.

At a debate held ahead of the World Water Day, the initiators of the project “Let us Be Careful Armenia – World Water Day 2014” agreed that hydro-powers plants keep increasing in number despite the concerns over possible environmental hazards.

Hydropower plant projects often drive the population in villages to protests, with many complaining that they are often left without irrigation water due to the plants.

“We are trying to be caretaking, as a matter of fact. The project, which has been under way for four years, aims to unite all the organizations concerned over the existing problems,” said Tatevik Simonyan, the project’s manager.

The World Water Day has been celebrated every year on March 22 since 1992. The slogan for this year’s event is Water and Energy.

The Armenian project addresses the existing problems through conferences and different other events, Simonyan said. “Every year, we conduct series of events – lectures in secondary schools, as well as with students. Besides, we annually conduct a big conference to gather together all state institutions on one platform to introduce a report,” she told our correspondent.

As for this year’s slogan, Simonyan said water and the energy consumption are inevitably interrelated, with the costs of water increasing gradually along with the increasing energy use.

Arevik Hovsepyan, the president of the National Water Cooperation NGO, agreed to the above remark, saying that they expect the water and energy consumption levels to increase by 50% and 85%, respectively in 2035.

“In Armenia, we obtain 43% of energy from the Nuclear Power Plant; the electric power from hydro-plants accounts for 33%, with 24% [more energy] coming from solar and wind stations and 0,005% - from thermal and solar stations. So, we have areas to develop. From the environmental point of view, it is necessary to pay attention to the hydropower plants with a serious environmental impact,” he said, adding that a misuse of the resources is often equivalent to environmental disasters.

Addressing the use of water resources in Armenia, Yervand Mirzakhanyan, the head of the Public Services Regulatory Commission’s Development and Monitoring Department, refrained from saying anything as the effectiveness criteria; he only pointed out to the number of hydro-power plants. “Armenia now has 154 small hydropower plants which produced 773 million kWt/h energy last year. Sixty-seven more [plants], which are under construction today, will help produce more energy at a speed of 527kWt/h,” he noted.