NAME, FACT AND EVEN IMAGE FOR TIGRAN TOROSYAN

Lragir.am
28 Aug 06

On August 26 Diasporan Artashes Barseghyan made interesting statements
at the Azdak Club on the water supply system in Armenia.

He moved to live in an Armenian village 15 years ago and tries to
contribute to rural development. Over these 15 years he found out that
corruption in Armenia is huge. Ashot Barseghyan particularly emphasizes
corruption in the sphere of water, especially in the region of Ararat
where he knows the state of rural communities, where the water supply
and quality threatens the physical security of people. Artashes
Barseghyan gave the example of the village of Kaghtsrashen.

"Now it is clear that two people are in charge of Armenian Water
Supply, both appointed by Mr. Hovik Abrahamyan. Perhaps most people do
not know Mr. Hovik Abrahamyan, he is known as Muk, as well as abroad,
in the Diaspora. Yes, yes, if you say Hovik Abrahamyan, people in
America, Europe, Diaspora will not know him, but they know him as
Muk. This mister is a prince in this region, as far as we can see,
as far as I can see, also in our republic, he appointed two people,
Felix Melikyan in charge of Armenian Water Supply in Ararat region,
and Blbulyan, executive director, " says Artashes Barseghyan. He
says Blbulyan is a former Communist functionary, who does not work
transparently, there is no information what he is doing.

"For already three years this organization has been gathering hundreds
of million drams in the region for water and has never replaced a pipes
in the region. There are over one hundred villages in the region of
Ararat. Water bills mount to a billion drams. Where does this money go,
what is it spent on?" says Artashes Barseghyan. He says Armenian Water
Supply System has a van with pipes which travels in the regions as if
for replacing the pipes, but the same pipes return to the headquarters.

"The terrible thing is that Armenian Water Supply is already
threatening people. How? Every day they come, switch on the water for
three hours when people are not at home. For instance, they switch
on the water at 8.30 when the farmers are already in the field. When
they come home at 1.30, there is no more water. Now Armenian Water
Supply will demand that people drink bad water and will make them
pay for it, threatening to sue them if they refuse to pay the bills,"
says Artashes Barseghyan.

Meanwhile, he sues Armenian Water Supply. Artashes Barseghyan sued
Armenian Water Supply to the first instance court of the region
of Ararat demanding regular supply of quality water, instead of
poisoning the citizens. Artashes Barseghyan says since water supply
is not permanent, when there is water, it flows out of pipes, forms
puddles on the earth, gets mixed with manure and dirt on vilage roads,
and when water is switched off, the vaccum in the pipes drafts the
dirty water into the pipes, and this poisonous staff gets mixed with
water when it is switched on and is supplied to people. Besides suing
Armenian Water Supply Artashes Barseghyan made a statement for the
district attorney and is going to send his statement in writing to
the district attorney to investigate the state of water supply in
the region.

"Armenian Water Supply prefers creating artificial shortage of
water for small parasites to come and steal water from the pipes
in the village, there is no water meter there, fill water-carriers
illegally, then take this water to villages where there is no water
and sell it. Whom do they give part of the money they get from selling
water? I saw last week. I have hundreds of photos, I saw the worker
of Armenian Water Supply, water carriers standing at the back of his
land, to take the water and sell it. When they saw me, they shouted
to switch off the water, Artashes is coming," says Artashes Barseghyan.

He says the same situation is in all the regions of Armenia, but
he cannot fight for everyone, therefore he started with one region,
one village. The NGO he set up will also deal with the problem of gas
because he thinks there is a dangerously high level of corruption in
this sphere too. He says he realizes that the water supply system in
the villages is worn out, and it is impossible to settle the problem
in a day, but Barseghyan says he is worried about the illegality for
already 15 years, when the government does not make any efforts to
improve water supply to the population, and the officials of Armenian
Water Supply cheat people. However, they not only cheat people but
also threaten Artashes Barseghyan to sue and even prosecute him.

Artashes Barseghyan assures, however, that nothing will prevent him
from battling corruption, because he has already solved all the other
problems in his life.