In Vayots Dzor Region, 320 springs have dried up in recent years: not even 1 kg of crops was harvested from around 1,700 hectares of land in 2021 because of the drought, as Gegham Margaryan, Head of Department of Agriculture and Environment of Vayots Dzor Regional Municipality, mentioned during the meeting with active residents of Yeghegnadzor consolidated community.
The meeting was organized within the framework of "Living Landscapes for Market Development in Armenia " (LILA) project. Within the framework of this project, EcoLur will establish a network of public journalists so that journalists can cover regional issues.
According to Gegham Margaryan, the most vulnerable aspect of the villages in Yeghegnadzor is the lack of water. 800 hectares of land is uncultivated. "280 hectares are in Vernashen, 120 in Gladzor, 400 in Malishka. This land remained uncultivated only because of water. Climate change is happening," he noted.
Gegham Margaryan mentioned that under the resolution of the Armenian government in 2021, it was planned to build 6 reservoirs in Vayots Dzor Region: Yelpin, Khndzorut, Khachik, Zirak, Vernashen and Getikvank. However, due to climate change, two of them cannot be built anymore because there is not enough water.
Maro Karapetyan, an employee of Yeghegnadzor municipality, noted that, the everyday life of the villager has also changed because of the climate change. "It may not snow for a month, there are few rains. Due to lack of irrigation water, villagers do not cultivate their land. We have an estate called Kehan, everyone was given land during privatization. When I was in school, our parents cultivated, now if we go, it is a wasteland, dry, there were grape and apple orchards, but everything has dried up because of the scarcity of water," she noted.
According to Maro Karapetyan, not being able to deal with agriculture has affected the residents' incomes, so now the priority is to create jobs.
January 11, 2024 at 11:31