Verin Getashen Residents Demanding Compensation from SHPP Administration

EcoLur

Verin Getashen residents, Gegharkounik Region, are demanding compensation from the SHPP administration constructed in their area. The problem is that the company has paid certain amounts of money to the villagers during the breakdown of the pipeline when all their harvest was destroyed. But the residents recognize only the payments of compensation for certain damage, but for land areas and buildings. As a matter of fact, this question is still open: “25 years ago I had a semi-constructed building here. During the SHPP construction I don’t know whether willingly or non-willingly my building was destroyed, so now only one wall has been left. I have taken out a loan to lay that building. I have been complaining for four years and asked to compensate at the least the cost of the construction materials. They say they will compensate, but nothing has been done so far,” Verin Getashen resident said and added that besides the semi-constructed building, there were a dozen of trees destroyed in the land area.

Another resident complained that a road was laid through her potato field, which hasn’t been recovered so far. “They laid a road for the SHPP through my potato field, all the stones have been thrown away into my land areas: they promise to recover it, but no results so far.”

 “I have demanded from them to recover whatever they have destroyed. The reply is that they will do it, but we don’t know when. We have presented our complaints to the rural administration and they also tell us they will compensate in near future,” another suffered resident said.

According to the residents, around 25-30 families have suffered from the damage caused to the community with the SHPP.

 EcoLur talked about this problem with Verin Getashen Village Head Rubik Ghukasyan, “I’m aware of everything. The case of the breakdown has been fixed, examined with all specialized acts drawn up and all damages awarded to the residents by the SHPP constructers,” Rubik Ghukasyan said and added that he is the guarantor of the interests of the villagers as Head of community. What about land areas through which the SHPP pipeline was laid, the village head mentioned, “Most of them has already received the compensation, while the others will soon get all the money. I’m guaranteeing it.”

The material was  developed in the frames of “Supporting reforms in the sector of small hydro power plants through enabling a dialogue between civil society  and the Ministry  of Nature Protection for sustainable use of river ecosystems” supported by UNDP/GEF Small Grants Programme".

January 14, 2016 at 17:27