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Sevan – a Reflection of Armenia’s Ecological Problems
October 3, 2005

Armenian experts have lately been forced to make modifications in the
classification of Armenia’s ecological problems, which had gone unchanged
for decades. Until 2004-05 that list was as follows – Lake Sevan, air
pollution in Yerevan, forest management, soil degradation, emissions
control, the preservation of endemic species and so on.
Minister of Ecology Vardan Aivazyan said that the Sevan issue was now
entering its second stage. This means that if so far the problem was to
prevent the water level from dropping, now the concern is to control the
rising level of water and to supervise it, as well to ensure that it does
not happen due to dirty water.
Sevan in the region
Sevan has great significance for the whole region. Vladimir Movsisyan, the
vice-President of the Lake Sevan Expert Committee and member of the National
Water Board, mentioned the limited reserves of drinking water in the world
and cited findings by English researchers, which claimed that in the near
future one liter of fresh water will have greater value than one liter of
oil. The largest body of fresh water in our region is Lake Sevan, and by our
region Movsisyan does not just mean the South Caucasus, but also the Near
East.
The high altitude of the lake (1916 m above sea level) also allows for the
natural flow of drinking water to all the centers of the region – Yerevan,
Baku, Tbilisi, Tavriz, Baghdad and so on.
However…
Sevan was “vegetating”, until 2000
>From 1933, the largest lake in the region was exploited carelessly and
without any measures taken for replenishment. 26 cubic kilometers of water
were released from a total volume of 58 cubic kilometers for electricity and
irrigation purposes, thus lowering the water level by 19 meters. Naturally,
various parameters changed drastically – the temperature and acidity of the
water were no longer the same, the level of nitrogen products rose in the
water, and phosphorus levels dropped. This caused the lake to “vegetate”.
“Vegetating” for a lake means to stagnate. Experts describe it in a harsher
fashion, “The lake turned from a developing one into a dying one.” Finally,
in the 1960s, Soviet scientists came to understand this. Calculations were
made and programs were planned that would lead to a rise in the water level
by at least 6 meters, which would stop the stagnation, and would bring the
water quality closer to drinking standards. It would then be possible to
consider other measures to further raise the water quality. But even these 6
meters seemed unrealistic back then.
Nevertheless, the Soviet republic took a series of steps that not only aimed
at lowering the flow of water away from the lake, but also at providing some
inflow back into Sevan. That was the purpose behind the Arpa-Sevan-Vorotan
tunnels, the reservoirs of Aparan, Azat and Her-her as well as the pump
stations and irrigation systems at Ranchpar and Mkhchyan. According to
Vladimir Movsisyan’s data, these structures cost more than US $500 million.
However, the outflow of water for electricity generation and irrigation
continued.
How long?
In his interview with us, Minister of Ecology Vardan Aivazyan said that the
1999 Presidential Order to cease outflow from Sevan for electricity purposes
was critical in saving the lake. Besides this, the Parliament also passed a
“law regarding Sevan” in 2001, which outlined the volume of permitted
outflow. Thus, if the annual outflow of water from the lake earlier
constituted up to 1-1.5 billion cubic meters (with an annual minimum of 256
million cubic meters), this law limited it to 150-170 million cubic meters
per year. Experts in this field say that the outflow for irrigation is
strictly within legal limits. The Complex Program for the Replenishment of
the Sevan Ecosystem, which planned to raise the level of the lake by 6-6.5
meters over 30 years, was also accepted as law.
Nature disrupts plans
While scientists and officials were deciding to raise the water level by an
annual 22 cm to reach their stated target after 30 years, Sevan was a step
ahead of everyone. Over the last three years, the water level has risen by
an annual average of 40 cm. It would seem at first that the whole country
would rejoice at this news, but rumors doing the rounds in ecological
circles since July suggest something quite different.
Information surfaced in the Armenian press suggesting that the government
wanted to arrest this rapid rise in the water level because many rich people
had built houses and hotels on the shores of Sevan, considering the possible
future rise in water level to be unlikely, and now this rise was threatening
these structures.
When the Ministry of Ecology organized discussions in this regard,
representatives of ecological NGOs voiced concerns that their greatest fear
was coming true – the government was not thinking about Lake Sevan, but
rather about the interests of the owners of legal and illegal structures
built on its banks. Gagik Tadevosyan, former president of the parliamentary
ecological committee and currently a permanent member of the Eurasian
committee of the Convention to Combat Desertification said, “These
discussions aimed at gauging the attitude of the NGOs, to lay the foundation
for the arrest of the rise in water level. They shouldn’t have organized a
discussion, they should have accelerated the realization of the annual plan
within the Sevan Complex Program.”
The Ministry of Ecology announced that the government did not wish to slow
the rising level of the lake, but wanted to make it more manageable. “Our
aim is not just to raise the water level at Sevan, but also to raise it with
clean water,” said the program representatives. “Raising it with clean
water” means to clear the area around the banks of any vegetation, forests
and structures before they are submerged, to install water pipes for nearby
towns and a road which would replace a nearly 30 km segment of the national
highway which is also under threat of submersion. The government of Armenia
plans to do so over a period of 30 years, and needs to raise the required
US$ 300 million taking the deadline into consideration. The Minister of
Ecology said that, at this rate, the lake will rise by 6-6.5 m of water in
10-12 years. “A four-year interim program gave results that were 2.5 times
greater,” field experts proudly said, admitting that heavy precipitation
also had a big role to play in the revival of Sevan.
One step forward, two steps back?
On September 1, 2005, when the government took the decision to increase the
irrigational water outflow from Sevan to 150 million cubic meters, raising
it by 30 million cubic meters, Gagik Tadevosyan said, “They are already
lowering the water level, or, to be more accurate, they aren’t letting it
rise.” Tadevosyan admitted that it was for the experts to say whether the
extra 30 million cubic meters were necessary. However, he also added that
the rumors mentioned above say a lot more about any such decision than the
suggestion that it was done for irrigational purposes. Vladimir Movsisyan,
vice-President of the Lake Sevan Expert Committee, considered the extra
irrigational outflow to be justified, considering the relatively dry summer
and low precipitation this year. The Ministry of Ecology also added that
this decision was within the guidelines of the law regarding Sevan.
Sevan keeps rising and growing in beauty
“If this goes on, the Sevan peninsula will be an island again,” said an old
man standing on the shore, his voice filled with glee. The waves were
noticeably higher, and the marshy portions from last year were gone without
a trace. The vacationers on the beach said that they were very happy with
the higher water level – the water was cleaner, and it’s always more
pleasant to swim in cleaner water. Even those who had leased portions of the
beach were happy, although their business could suffer because of it. The
rising water has already covered some of the beaches and continues to
threaten others, including some of the structures built on them. In this
case, the owners would be forced to lease other land, and also to remove
mobile structures from where they could be submerged to safer areas.
However, it is difficult not to believe that their positive reaction is
genuine, even if the situation is against their financial gain. After all,
they realize that if the lake were to stagnate, they would be lose their
business completely.
No need to panic
Today 410 hectares of land has been submerged by the rising waters, of which
100 hectares were artificial forests and do not threaten to pollute the
lake, according to experts. But if the program to raise the water level by
6-6.5 m is realized, then 4427 hectares of land would be submerged, of which
3130 hectares is covered by forests.
“I am categorically for raising the water level by 6 meters and I don’t
understand this level of concern. Why are we so panicked that it’s rising?
We took certain steps and caused the water level to rise,” said Movsisyan.
The lack of financial means at this point to prepare the surrounding land
for further rise in the water level does not worry Movsisyan either. He said
that the residential areas around the lake had a shortage of firewood. There
was no need to complicate the situation by announcing tenders or
competitions. If the government were to appeal to the local population, they
would gladly cut the trees in the area and clear the land. As for preparing
the remaining land for the rising waters, the finances required are not
large, according to Movsisyan.
“The Caucasus – one home”
Solving the Sevan problem will not end Armenia’s ecological concerns. And in
general, in contrast to communist times, it is very difficult, and almost
impossible, ecologically clean one country separately.
“The Caucasus is one home,” said Minister of Ecology Vardan Aivazyan,
“Nature knows no borders, it is continuous and ubiquitous. Civilized society
should accept responsibility for maintaining nature.”
Aivazyan said that rough calculations put the population of the South
Caucasus at around 15 million. According to him, there are three main
concerns for those 15 million people, which are the joint and integrated
management of water, preservation of ecosystems and especially endemic
species, as well as the control of industrial emissions.
The minister assured us that there already is cooperation with Georgia over
control of illegal deforestation. He also mentioned a unique “exchange”
program involving the mouflon species from Armenia and royal deer from
Georgia.
So far cooperation with the Azerbaijani side has been limited to social
interaction – joint discussions, round tables and seminars. However,
Aivazyan said that it was necessary for the ministers of the two countries
to meet, which the Armenian side had proposed, with no reaction from
Azerbaijan so far. Why did Armenia officially not react to the news in
Azerbaijan that Armenia was releasing cholera bacilli into the Arax river,
which would then flow in Azerbaijan? “From time to time, Armenia responds to
such baseless and absurd allegations, proposing visits by any international
organization and monitoring in any format as well as in any area that causes
concern to our neighbors. That could be deforestation, radioactive waste, or
toxic-chemical pollution. But the Azerbaijani side never reacts to these
proposals, despite the existence of a number of potential joint programs. On
the contrary, Azerbaijan always politicizes these issues,” said the Minister
of Ecology. Speaking specifically about Arax, he gave the following
explanation, “Arax flows through Iran before entering Azerbaijan. So if we
were to pollute the river, Iran would be the first to complain. But Iran has
no complaints.” The Ministry of Ecology thought it pertinent to announce
once more, for everyone in the whole of the South Caucasus, the decision of
the Armenian authorities regarding the willingness to cooperate extensively
over ecological (and not only ecological) issues in the region, despite the
presence of conflicts and contradictions. An example of such cooperation
could be the German “Caucasus Initiative” program, which includes
allocations of 10 million euros to the three republics for work in the
sphere of ecology. Armenia has already signed the contract, received the
money, and is preparing to found the “Arpi” national park on the Javakhk
plateau. Georgia is slightly behind, while Azerbaijan is still in the
negotiation stage.
Arevhat Grigoryan