Agriculture Minister on government`s readiness to allow additional  water release from Sevan: Let me refuse answering this question

ArmInfo."Allow me not to answer this question," Armenian Minister of Agriculture Artur Khachatryan told reporters on August 23, when he was asked by journalists why the current government, which  had criticized the former government for  water release from Sevan, is doing the same after coming to power.

As the Agriculture Minister pointed out, the current government "does  not repeat the experience of the former" and did not "surpass" it in  additional water intake. "Last year the matter concerned an  additional release of 100 million cubic meters, and this year it is  only about 40 million," he said, adding that from year to year the  demand for water is increasing, the supply is declining, and there is  a need for an organization efficient assembly of water through the  construction of new reservoirs. "As of today about 2 billion cubic  meters of water accumulate in the reservoirs, the same amount is  being used, pouring into the Araks River and going to not so friendly  neighbors - Turkey and Nakhichevan," Khachatryan explained.  To note  today, August 23 the Armenian government approved amendments to the  law on the approval of the annual and comprehensive programs of  measures to restore, preserve,  reproduce and use the ecosystem of  Lake Sevan . The bill provides for  increasing the water intake from  Lake Sevan from the current 170 million to 210 million cubic meters  in 2018. Meanwhile, as Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan noted, today's   decision is taken by the members of the government with a heavy heart   so as not to harm the villagers.He stressed that the discussed issue   is one of the most problems, his decision was preceded by a month and   a half learning. "The discussions were stormy, and as a result of  them it became clear that there are risks of creating a deadlock for   agriculture," the head of the Armenian government said, adding that   the situation is deadlocked for the authorities. "The irrigation   system raises a lot of questions, and it is necessary to understand   whether there are statements about the existence of a water mafia, if   it is so, then it must capitulate as soon as possible," said Nikol   Pashinyan.

Meanwhile, on August 2, in an interview with journalists, Armenian  Minister of Agriculture Artur Khachatryan stated that instead of  additional water release from Sevan, it is more reasonable to use  deep wells. "Last year, as he recalled, there was an additional water  flow from Lake Sevan, the money received for this went to the  off-budget account." If this money is used to drill wells,  Khachatryan believes, this will be more correct, both for Sevan and  for agriculture of Armenia, "he said.

To recall, on July 17, 2017 the National Assembly of Armenia approved   the law on increasing the volume of water release from Lake Sevan   from 170 million cubic meters to 270 million cubic meters. The reason   for this decision was the fact that the water basins in the country   were not full. According to environmentalists fish farms cause no   less serious damage to the environment and water resources of the   country. However, according to the environmentalist, specialist on   water resources Qnarik Hovhannisyan, the Armenian government asks to   increase the releases each year, justifing the request with deficit   of irrigation water, but in fact only about 25% of the water from   Sevan reaches the farmers, the remaining 70% is lost. Thus, despite   the fact that the Ministry of Nature Protection of Armenia opposed   the proposal to increase the water intake from Sevan, and independent   experts unanimously reiterated that lowering the water level in Sevan   would lead to irreversible consequences such as the intensification   of the waterlogging process, the law was adopted, which, as expected,   influenced the level of Lake Sevan. The authors of the law assured  that additional releases of water per 100 million cubic meters,   according to calculations, could lead to a decrease in the lake level   by 8 cm, in case of which, even in comparison with the same day of   the previous year, a high water level of Lake Sevan will be   maintained at 10 cm (18-8). According to official data, in 2017 water   intake totaled 266.757 million cubic meters of water, instead of the  envisaged 270 million cubic meters.  As a result, already at the  beginning of the current season of  holidays, ecologists began to  alarm about the problem of algae  fouling Sevan, which, according to  experts, is caused not only by   high air temperature, scanty  precipitation, the dumping of extremely  polluted waters into the  basins of the country and the lack of water  treatment stations, but  also last year's additional water release.