

The land areas in Artashar settlement of Metsamor consolidared community, Armavir Region, have been irrigated for years with sewage water from Metsamor and Armavir towns, which are mixed with the Akhuryan-Araks aqueduct without undergoing treatment. They used to be cleaned in the past, but now Armavir wastewater treatment plant is not operating. For this reason stench spreads in Artashar and an unsanitary situation emerges especially in the summer months.
The agricultural land areas in Artashar make up 443.88 hectares, out of which 354 hectares are arable lands. As of 2019, about 70 hectares were not irrigated due to water scarcity or absence. 46 hectares of lands in the community are saline and around 70 hectares are swampy and not amenable to cultivation.
"Our irrigation water is the sewage that comes and spills into our spaces. It's an unbearable smell, you can't even go walk through these parts in hot weather. When you enter the field, it smells. But we have to use it, we plant tomatoes, watermelons and cabbage. Whoever comes to our village wonders how this village lives under this stink?," an Artashar resident complained in her interview with Ecolur.
The water problem in Artashar arose as a result of the violation of the water balance of the Ararat artesian basin. The water level in the deep wells dropped, the output of Sevjur-Aknalich springs was reduced by about 6 times. Six new deep wells were drilled near us. These wells were dug 120 meters deep, they are clear and clean waters. The land areas near the deep wells are watered with them, whereas those areas where there is no deep well remain waterless," another resident noted.
"If thanks to our efforts, four deep wells were drilled in Zartong, through which the villagers are able to irrigate and use less amount of sewage water, then the lands in Artashar are irrigated with sewage water. Our whole goal is to exploit deep wells in Artashar. In Armavir Region, we had a cholera epidemic in 1998, and we have had small epidemic situations in different settlements in recent years," Angela Stepanyan, President of Armavir-based "Regional Sustainable Development" NGO, expressed her concern.
According to Edgar Hovhannisyan, First Deputy Head of Metsamor Community, the issue of sewage in the community has not yet been resolved. "The community does not have the budget to build a treatment plant. It is an expensive pleasure," Edgar Hovhannisyan outlined.
Reminder: the construction of Armavir (Metsamor) wastewater treatment plant was also planned within the framework of "Community Infrastructure Program II, Phase 3" project worth 81 million Euros.
Within the framework of Community Infrastructure Program II, Phase 3, it is planned to:
- Repair/build the water supply and drainage systems of 11 towsn and 41 rural communities in 6 regions in Armenia (Shirak, Lori, Armavir, Gegharkunik, Vayots Dzor and Syunik Regions). • Construction of about 650.0 km of new water lines and installation of water measuring wells for 25,000 individual houses, 25.0 km construction of sewage lines.
- Build sewage treatment plants in Metsamor and Sevan towns.
The planned Armavir wastewater treatment plant was not built. Executive Director of RA Territorial Development Fund informed about the reasons in his letter dated on June 16, 2022, that due to the lack of a specialized operating organization, Water Committee proposed to carry out the works of improving the drainage systems provided by the Project in 2 stages, in the 1st stage - to plan the construction of sewer collectors and other infrastructures planned for them , in the 2nd stage - to implement the works of construction of SCPs. Taking into account the above, the Armavir SCP was excluded from the Project: only the repair of the 1.5 km section of the existing 10.7 km main sewer collector in an emergency condition was included."
This article has been prepared with the financial support of the Center for Media Initiatives within the framework of "Expanding Creation of Independent Media Content" grant project.
July 19, 2024 at 15:45