EcoLur
Urgent measures should be taken in regard to Voghjaberd waste burial ground. “Everybody who yesterday (15 April) attended Voghjaberd waste burial ground, could get convinced it is a real disaster,” said John Vijgen, Director of International HCH & Pesticides Association invited by the OSCE Office in Yerevan as an expert. On 16 April the OSCE Office in Yerevan held a discussion of this issue with the participation of stakeholders such the Ministry of Emergency States, Nature Protection and Agriculture Ministries. The Ministry of Health didn’t send its representative. The representatives of the US Embassy in Armenia, USAID and NGOs also took part in this discussion. Deputy Head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan Carel Hofstra presided over this meeting.
It should be mentioned that the waste burial ground is a deep pit with no inner protective layer where more than 500 tons of expired pesticides and weed and pest-killer chemicals have been buried. All this is covered by two-meter layer of soil, which is now disturbed by heavy equipment. Not only the pesticides have appeared on the surface, but also their decay products and those of other chemical reactions that resemble chokedamps by their composition used during World War I. The drainage system is blocked with soil and doesn’t fulfill its main functions, i.e. water disposal from the waste burial ground. Now this water washes the surface of the waste burial ground with all its content and flows down to summer cottages and “Erebouni” Preserve.
“Still in 2003 Brussels recognized this issue needs increased attention. And now this already poses a colossal threat to at least 3 thousand people that are exposed to miasmas from the waste burial ground,” said Yelena Manvelyan, the Chairman of “Women for Health and Healthy Environment” NGO. Under her, the investigation conducted by the organization in 2007 showed that the weed and pest-killer chemicals have already penetrated into the soil. “There is danger that they may penetrate farther even to the water arteries of the country – the Hrazdan and Araks Rivers,” she said and added the public is expecting the government to take active measures; particularly it concerns the Ministries of Health and Nature Protection who bear responsibility for the safety of environment and health.
John Vijgen proposed a plan of urgent measures:
• Permanent securing no access possible
• Provisionary catchment of rainwater and deviation around burial
• Temporary covering of open waste areas plus parallel collection waste, transport and temporary storage
• Secure any worsening of situation
• Then get back to normal scenario
The expert thinks that only after this plan of urgent measures one may return to the normal plan scheduled for 3-5 years, and eventually, lays down the elimination of the waste burial ground content.
The whole problem is that the state bodies give no official respond in the form of decisions, decrees and instructions and the ministries can take real actions in accordance with them. Only the Minister of Emergency States Armen Yeritsyan examined the situation on the spot and applied to the Prime Minister. At present everything depends on the factual steps taken by the government.
April 19, 2010