ACCORDING TO ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ORGANIZATIONS, YEREVAN CAN BECOME PLACE OF NATURAL DISASTER ON ACCOUNT OF COVERING CHANNEL OF GETAR

Noyan Tapan
Nov 8, 2007

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 8, NOYAN TAPAN. As a result of the construction work
being implemented over the river Getar, crossing the central part
of Yerevan, the latter can become a place of natural disaster. The
channel of the river, which is growing narrower year after year, will
become much smaller as a result of the current construction work, and
the whole city may be flooded by heavy rains and thaws. This statement
was made by the representatives of the non-governmental organizations
involved in the environmental protection problems of Yerevan.

As a result of the conducted work, part of the channel of the Getar
will be covered by a concrete tube, on which a motor highway will
be built from Koriun up to Tumanian street. The city authorities
answered the warning calls of non-governmental organizations saying
that the construction of the Getar is necessary for the purpose
of facilitating the state of the city transport traffic and making
Khanjian street larger.

Roland Manukian, the Chief Specialist of the "Armhydroproject"
enterprise, stated that the construction being implemented over
the river Getar has not undergone an environmental protection and
urban development expert examination, there are no projects of the
construction and it is not known which organization has carried out
the order. In his opinion, making the channel of the Getar smaller
is full of dangerous consequences: yet in 1946 almost half of Yerevan
was destroyed as a result of heavy rains and floods.

The water even brought 120-ton stones into the city. After that
accident a temporary regulator with a stronghold and a special erection
was built in the Avan-Arinj part of the Getar, which would work during
heavy rains.

According to him, later that regulator was left without attention,
the stronghold was destroyed, and the special erection was filled
with garbage from rain-water. "In fact, that system is no longer
good for protecting the city in similar situations. If, God forbid,
the 1946 events are repeated, everything will be destroyed, the Chief
Specialist of the "Armhydroproject" enterprise is convinced.

Mr. Manukian has turned to the heads of different departments with this
problem, however, no one answered the question of who is the author of
the project. He was told in the Ministry of Environmental Protection
that the storage lake of Sevaberd will completely settle the problems
of the Getar, which, according to R. Manukian, is impossible, since
the storage lake of Sevaberd closes only one tributary of the Getar.

In the words of Karine Danielian, the Chairwoman of the Association
"For Stable Human Development", this construction being implemented
over the river will not solve the problem of the city traffic, on the
contrary, it will make worse the state of the city already standing
in front of an ecological disaster. "Yerevan is strangled in concrete,
asphalt, construction debris, cars becoming more and more day by day ,
as well as in exhaust gas." The newly built buildings are deprived
of green spaces and gardens. The river crossing the Oghakadzev
(ring-shaped) garden seems to be a small oasis and air-vent in
a desert. I am sure that soon it will not exist either," Karine
Danielian mentioned.