Siranuysh Gevorgyan, ArmeniaNow
Residents of Zangakatun and Urtsalanj villages, Ararat province, are seriously concerned about the construction of a hazardous waste dump in the area adjoining the villages. About a month ago Zangakatun villagers literally drove away a group of geologists who had come to map the subsoil area for the purpose of burying hazardous chemicals and wastes.
“Our people stood up and blocked their way to the site,” said deputy village head of Zangakatun (about 100 km south of Yerevan) Vilson Mayilyan.
The villagers believe that in case of building such a waste dump, they would constantly be living side by side with danger, the environment would be polluted, toxins would penetrate agricultural produce, which is the main source of income for many of the villagers. Many also claim that uranium or radioactive wastes of the nuclear power plant (NPP) would be buried there, too.
Subsoil area study in the villages has been done by Yerevan State University’s Center for Geological Studies LLC. The company won the tender in December 2009 to “map the subsoil area for the purpose of burying hazardous chemicals and wastes”. The project is commissioned by RA Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources. Around \\\\\\\$ 309,000 (119 million drams) has been transferred to the company’s bank account.
Head of the geological center Marat Grigoryan, who is also the dean of the YSU Faculty of Geography and Geology, says that the dump is not meant for nuclear waste.
“It will be a municipal waste dump, meaning for unusable agricultural substances, expired drugs, radioactive substances used for medical purposes . . .” says Grigoryan.
Grigoryan believes that the government has made a proper decision to build such a dump.
“We dispose of that kind of waste here or there, polluting the soil and water, the air, whereas they have to be buried at a special dump,” he explains.
According to him, the area adjoining those two villages are most suitable for that purpose.
“The geological structure of such a dump is the main warrant of its safety,” says Grigoryan, adding that the areas selected by them are the safest – dry, with no threat of landslide and seismically sound.
He says that the dump will not pose any threat to the villagers:
“If experts are confident that it is the safest area, then they have to believe the experts. We have dug pits 2-4 kilometers away from the village where the land is stony, not fit for agriculture, thus unused by villagers.” The villagers, though, claim that it’s only 400 meters away from their pastures.
The geological research team has stopped working. Grigoryan has turned to Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan to ensure their safety while implementing the project.
“If not, I will annul the contract,” says Grigoryan.
President of Ecolur environmental NGO Inga Zarafyan, who was the first to raise alarm about the issue, says that before starting the implementation of such a project public discussions should have been held with participation of the rural communities and environmental organizations informing them that such a hazardous entity was planned to be built in their neighborhood, and in that case the company would not have faced such problems.
“Plus, we don’t know what to do with the existing dumps. Instead of building new ones we have to think of alternative ways of solving the issue,” says Zarafyan.
May 25, 2010 at 08:06