EcoLur
The Voghji River, Syunik Region, has left almost without water, as EcoLur’s camera fixed on 28 November during its visit to Syunik Region.
The Voghji River is under the pressure of mining, irrigation and SHPPs. During the visit the SHPPs didn’t operate with their full capacity, while “Dzagedzor” SHPP didn’t work because of water scarcity. Irrigation season has finished and no water is taken for the irrigation, so only mining is left.
In 2014 “Clean Energy and Water” program published “Voghji River Basin: Pressure-Impact Analysis” document, which says that the environmental flow of the Voghji River in Qajaran river section is not preserved from August to February. The environmental flow of the river from August to February has been estimated 0.18 m3/sec, while the flow was observed 0.001 m3/sec.
Zangezour Copper and Molybdenum Combine is going to increase Qajaran copper and molybdenum mining volumes in near future making it annually 22 million tons. For this reason, the water of Voghji, Geghi and Sakqar rivers have been used for the ore dressing plant and open pit needs. Annual water demand will make up 68.82 million cum. In this case, the Voghji River won’t be able to provide water either to SHPPs or the irrigation systems and in this case it doesn’t make any sense to speak about environmental flow and ecosystem balance.
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December 07, 2015 at 17:47