BEAN AND GREENS EATING – DEADLY DANGEROUS
By Aghavni Haroutiunian
AZG DAILY
24-12-2009
Investigation
This investigation is done with support from the Danish Association
for Investigative Journalism / Scoop
Everything is under control … "the mornings dawn here peacefully"
68-year-old Haykaz Hambardzumyan lives in Syuniq community already
58 years. He lives alone and has a 5000 m2 of plot of land. He uses
the land to meet his own needs and if necessary lends it to others
without profit. He has a garden, where he also grows vegetables for
himself and his children living in Yerevan.
According to him, he doesn’t cultivate anything in the places where
the heavy metals exist. "I have 2000 m2 of land in that territory. The
rest of my land I irrigate with clean waters of the River Geghi. The
situation was terrible in the territory of the River Khalach, but
now it has become a little better. Heavy metals were mixed with the
waters of the river, it was even noticeable, but today the quality
of the water has become better, though it is of no consequence,
as the land is already polluted with the sediments".
"It is already the second year that the quality of the water has
become better by 70 percent. At present it is probably normal to use
it. Many people here cultivate those lands", Haykaz Hambardzumyan
told us. According to him, the lands of Syuniq community are few,
but the neighboring villages also have few lands to grow vegetables
and greens; most of them cultivate grain.
"As compared with other villages of Kapan, people live here better
thanks to vegetable and fruits growing. And it is easy to sell, the
"marshrutkas" (small buses) work every day. Other villages also grow
fruits and vegetables, but they are far from Kapan to bring their
product to the market easily. Some people from our community even walk
to Kapan to sell their product. Syuniq village lives better than the
other villages of the community", these are the data of the Syuniq
community’s agro food consumption, according to Haykaz Hambardzumyan.
According to Rubina Ter-Martirosyan, Community and Public Relations
Manager of Dino Gold Mining Company, the company that belongs to the
Canadian company Dandee Precious Metals no longer uses the tailing
dump of Artsvanik.
"According to the Contract we use a part of Artsvanik and we
will recultivate that part. In the tailing dump of Geghanush a
closed water cycle is used that is more secure. A project on the
conservation of the central mine is discussed, and some proposals are
submitted connected with the waters coming from the mines", Rubina
Ter-Martirosyan notes. According to her, the company even meets the
requirements of the Canadian environmental standards.
Levon Petrosyan, RA Environment Ministry Staff’s Environmental State
Inspectorate’s Head of Regional Department of Syuniq assures that
the tailing dumps that are water objects, such as the tailing dumps
neighboring the community of Syuniq, are under their control.
According to him, it is already a year that the tailing dump of Dino
Gold Mining is not located in Artsvanik, and the company does not
operate in the territory of the Syuniq community. The tailing dump of
Geghanush has been built; it has a circulation system and the water
flows back again into the plant. In this sense, they have no problem
with the community of Syuniq.
At present, Zangezur Conglomerate uses the tailing dump of Artsvanik,
and the polluted waters flow through the territory of Syuniq community.
Levon Petrosyan connects the pollution of the lands only with the
tailing dumps; he notes, "Sometimes we have accidents because of
worn-out water pipes and as a result, the waters leave the sediments
in the preliminary pool that in the end are expelled into the River
Kachavan. There were cases when the conglomerates compensated for
the damages, but most of all, if there are no accidents, the tailing
dumps work properly. The tailing dump of Artsvanik belongs to Zangezur
Conglomerate, but several years ago a part of it was placed at the
disposal of Dino Gold Mining. It was a territory with a capacity
of one million tones, and when it was filled, the company built the
tailing dump of Geghanush and thanks to God, it is normal today".
The director of the tailing dump was fined several times and last
time he was obliged to compensate for the damages costing one million
Armenian drams.
What about Dino Gold Mining, in 2008, according to Mr. Petrosyan, when
the wastes were pumping into the tailing dump and there was a flow
from it into the River Achanan, the company was fined three million
Armenian drams for the pollution of the upper layer of the earth.
Dino Gold Mining was fined also in 2005 and 2007 for the pollution of
the earth with the industrial wastes. In 2006, Zangezur Conglomerate
was also fined for the same reason.
According to the head of environmental regional department of Syuniq,
the accidents along the 38 km pipe decrease at present, and it happens
only twice or three times a year. What about the volume of the waters
that flow during the accidents, Petrosyan notes that the accidents last
about half an hour and during that time 1200 tones of water may flow.
Sick and tired of complaining…
"Sometimes the waste pipe goes out of order and the accidents happen at
night time, when there is no one to put it in order and as a result,
the waste appears in the irrigation ditch and then on the lands. Both
conglomerates compensate for the damages, for example this year we
have already drawn up a report of 7 million Armenian drams, but it
is not a solution to the problem. There is pollution; we have 337
ha of arable land, 60 ha of which is irrigated with that ditch",
Samvel Sargsyan, head of Syuniq community, describes the situation
from the aspect of the community of Syuniq.
According to him, the community lands have been polluted since 1974,
after the wastes’ place of Kapan Mining Conglomerate (at present the
conglomerate belongs to Dino Gold Mining) was moved to Syuniq. In
the past, the communities of Khalach and Syuniq (Syuniq community
includes Syuniq, Sznak, Ditsmayri, Khordzor and Bargushat villages)
took the water from the upper part of the tailing dump of Artsvanik.
"Four villages of my community used that water. Pollution has started
from that time and continues until now", the head of the community
gets annoyed. "Our village provided 40 percent of Kapan vegetables;
at present only 10 percent of vegetables are produced compared with the
past. The lands are polluted and the people are informed that the lands
in Syuniq community especially below the ditch are highly polluted with
heavy metals and using of them is dangerous, especially for children".
According to Samvel Sargsyan, who is head of the community since
1994, the solution of the problem of irrigation waters has always
been a primary task. "About 60 ha of arable land is below the ditch,
and people use it, but we are unable to clean it", the head of the
community describes the situation. According to him, at present there
are pieces of land, where 20-30 cm of toxic wastes are available.
According to the data presented by Sargsyan, "The lands are plowed
deeply; in order the sediments go into deeper layers of the land
to grow vegetables. I worked on these lands as head of field-crop
cultivation brigade, and from the beginning of 1980s these lands have
been polluted with wastes".
There is a 7 km long water pipe built in 1972 that is out of order and
in addition to it, it is filled with wastes. The head of the community
is displeased with the resources. "We cleaned those parts of land,
where it was possible to work by hand, but it is not enough. The
community does not dispose resources to take environmental measures.
We do some cleaning at the expense of the community, but we need
a large sum of money to carry out normal cleaning – about AMD 150
million, when the whole administrative budget of the community is
AMD 24 million".
"The pollution with the mining waters continues; also with the waters
from the waste pipes in case of accidents and with the industrial dust
of Kapan Conglomerate. Before 1981 we gathered 40 tones of cucumber
from each hectare, but today we produce hardly 10 tones from all
lands. There is sufficient amount of microelements in the air that
come down on the plants and ruin everything", Samvel Sargsyan said.
What about health care issues, according to the head of the community,
women tumors have really increased in the community. "I applied
to the conglomerate by letter explaining that the damages they
cause have also cancerous character; it appears only in the future
causing diseases. Today the health situation is not critical, but
I am sure that it will make itself felt in the future. Though today
Kapan Conglomerate does not use the tailing dump of Artsvanik, its
slops are cleaned in our territory; the wastes flow into the river
destroying the local fauna. And it’s at least a crime to use the
river’s water. I am sick and tired of complaining…"
The health care data are "silent"
According to Nune Gevorgyan, head of the health care department of the
Syuniq regional council staff’s health care and social security office,
the medical center of Kapan serving both Kapan and the community of
Syuniq hasn’t sounded the alarm. "The death rates from oncological
diseases rank second in the community of Syuniq that correspond to the
indexes of the World Health Organization (WHO). But compared with the
data of 2006 the death rate from oncological diseases has increased
a little – by 0,4 percent, especially among the women able to work",
Nune Gevorgyan ended her conversation about the issue.
Head of Kapan policlinic, oncologist Gohar Israyelyan doesn’t think
that there is a tendency for this disease to increase. Though,
according to Smbat Orbelyan, director of Kapan medical center,
"There is a tendency for the oncological diseases to increase in our
community. Similar tendency is recorded in the whole country, but it is
a little more in our province. But the concrete reason is not known".
"Heavy metals may cause different pathological changes in human
body – from chronic fatigue to renal failure, or other polyorganic
infections. The most dangerous infection by heavy metals is mercurial",
Smbat Orbelyan explains expressing his concern that their health
care institutions are not informed of the research carried out by
the Center for Ecological-Noosphere Studies.
Gagik Bazikyan, deputy director of the National Oncological Center,
doesn’t have any statistical data on Syuniq province either.
Anyway, in Armenia’s statistical chronicle of 2008, according to the
presented data of malignant tumors (the data of the provinces are
not presented separately), the number of the people, whose illness
was diagnosed first time, is 5951in the year 2003, though in 2007
that number reached 7294. The number of the sick registered in
medical-prophylactic centers increased as well during those years –
from 25580 to 28439.
According to the Armenian National Statistical Service’s data, the
death rate from tumors increased by 1.7 percent in January-September
of 2009 as compared with the same period of 2008.
A way out of the situation should be found, before the offenders
are found
According to Ashot Margaryan, technical director of Zangezour Cooper
Molybdenum Conglomerate, there are no heavy metals in the tailing
dump of Artsvanik. "In our birthplace (the mine) heavy metals are
few, and they do not gather anywhere. Heavy metals are many in the
birthplace of Kapan", nothing else we could hear during a telephone
conversation with Margaryan, who was in a hurry.
Henrik Petrosyan, environmental issues specialist of Kapan
Municipality, has a contrary view, "Both tailing dumps, Artsvanik
and Geghanush are full of heavy metals independent of everything.
What about the report on the pollution of the lands and agro food,
it is not kept in Kapan Municipality, which has a new working staff.
"Nevertheless, in Kavart, one of the territories assessed as polluted,
the central mine of Dino Gold Mining is located, which is considered
as disadvantageous. The company officials explained that the waters
flow into the territory of Dino Gold Mining through a mining road,
and from here they pour into the River Voghji – 1,5 km far from the
residential areas of the town".
According to environmental official Petrosyan, Voghji does not cause
people any harm, though, "when the mines are closed, the waters
accumulate and with the help of rain-waters they may come out. Dino
Gold Mining conserves the mine, but after that the Government is
responsible for it. Dino Gold Mining worked in the canyons mentioned
in the investigation report; it started to operate from the licensed
year 2006, then stopped operating from August 2008 and now the company
has presented it for conservation. Dino Gold Mining is now operating
only in the tailing dumps and its own territory refusing to exploit
the mines of the Kavart and Barabatum Canyons".
Clean water – an ineffective factor
53-year-old Garnik Sargsyan’s house is located below the tailing dump
of Artsvanik, on the lands that have been under the waste waters many
times. He lives with his wife and son, with whom he is building a
house this year.
"I have 3000 m2 of land. And I grow everything on it; and the surplus,
vegetables and fruits, I sell in Kapan market. We irrigate our land
with the waters of the River Geghi that are clean", farmer Garnik
says repeating that most of the product he grows for his own family.
Generally in the community of Syuniq people grow only greens on dozens
of meters of land, in many places they are even covered with plastic.
But the villagers insist that it is only for themselves, maybe based on
the logic of the head of the community that people are informed of the
pollution with heavy metals. Though, for example Garnik Sargsyan didn’t
know that the vegetables grown on the polluted lands are poisonous,
even if the lands are irrigated with clean water. He assured, "Maybe
the River Khalach is polluted, but the River Geghi is clean and we
irrigate with that water". He irrigates the 3000 m2 of land that
is already polluted, cultivates every inch of the land, gathers the
harvest, and, according to him, doesn’t sell it in Kapan market.
Photo 1: Haykaz Hambardzumyan grows blood oranges.
Photo2, 3: Every inch of Garnik Sargsyan’s 3000 m2 of land is
cultivated, though, he assures that in spite of the bumper crop,
he seldom sells it in the market of Kapan.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress