EcoLur
The Pan-Armenian Environmental Front circulated an open letter addressed to Hovsepyan, the Head of Control Service of President, PM Tigran Sargsyan and the Chairman of the Control Chamber of Armenia Ishkhan Zaqaryan.
The letter particularly says, “…The majority of SHPs in Armenia are constructed with violations of law either in projecting stage or in operation stage, and all this happens with the silent consent, which results in the suffering of people and nature. Numerous violations have been detected in the SHP projects examined by us only in the recent year and a half (Trchkan, Gerger, Khachaghbyur – 1, Khachaghbyur-2, Tchitchkhan, Gndevanq, Marziget-1 and Marziget-2 etc), the data submitted don’t comply with reality, which result in causing irrecoverable damage to environment. We can see that competent officials don’t take any measures to examine and improve this sector.”
On 12 March public hearings were held in Martz Village, Lori Region (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcXdFEUfc5g). The founder and director of “Marzenergy” Company is Liparit Simonyan, the owner of “Ler ev Jur” LLC. This fact is noteworthy, as “Ler ev Jur” Company operates three SHPs, one of them is Tchitchkhan, where examinations were conducted and violations were detected under the information we have.
At the public hearings in Martz Village the villagers protested to the construction of the SHP. According to RA Law “On Environmental Impact Expert Assessment” (Article 6 (6)), it’s a sufficient ground to turn down the project. At the same time we detected various drawbacks when we examined this project.
1. Volume 1, page 10. It says “that tree felling won’t take place for the construction, as there no trees and bushes in the territory of 10 ha”, while 17 page, Volume 5, says that “typical vegetation for the territory of SHP – forest territory”.
2. Volume 1, page 15. It says “the existing conditions promote the construction” and make a reference to “Martziget-1” constructed on Talin waterways, but “Martziget-1” is constructed on the Martz River. This enables us to judge that the project is rewritten from another project and no studies have been carried out for this project. Thus, the data about SHP capacities and produced energy don’t coincide, as different chapters mention different figures. Page 12, Volume 1, says its capacity is 1.6 Mw, while production capacity is 5.565 million kw/h, while page 22, chapter 5, lays down 1.89 Mw and 8.59 kw/h, respectively.
3. The project doesn’t have part about impact on landscapes, or biodiversity or ecosystem. In-detailed description and mapping of 5-kilometer-long pipes are also missing.
4. An environmental flow of 0.1 cubic meters per second is supposed to be left, but there is no assessment what will happen to the fish, river ecosystem and what are the parameters for the compensation of long-term damage.
5. There is no assessment how the SHP will affect on the welfare of the villagers, who, as a matter of fact, will be deprived of any water and their surroundings, rest zone.
Taking into consideration the fact that Nature protection Ministry has many times issued positive opinion to such projects, we call you not to allow the Ministry for the consideration of projects. The business of SHPs stuck in the corruption: SHPs grow like mushrooms at the expense of our nature. We propose to carry out examinations and find out what the criteria are for SHPs to be issued their licenses, water permits and positive opinions. We call to bring to justice those officials who sign under these documents. Let it sound not like a threat, but if such a low-quality project such as Martziget-2 receives a positive opinion, you will also bear responsibility,” says the open letter of Pan-Armenian Environmental Front.
March 27, 2013 at 14:29