EcoLur
Facebook user Arsen Arakelyan has posted a video and photos on his Facebook page, where you can see numerous dead fish in the river.
'This disastrous picture is due to the wastewater flowing into the Atchanan River from the pipes of Qajaran Combine thus eliminating not only fish but also making the lives of the locals unbearable...' he posted on FB.
In her interview with the Aysor.am, Environmental Department Head of 'Zangezour Copper and Molybdenum Combine' CJSC Hasmik Mkrtumyan noted that that hadn't witnessed such a phenomenon in the course of wide-scale biodiversity investigations carried out from 2015 to the end of January 2018.
Under Hasmik Mkrtumyan, it is generally unprofessional to directly relate the death of fish to one ring of impact when there are many other rings of impact available in this section such as derelict mines, other mining subjects, i.e. it is the most actively impacted zone.
Levon Petrosyan informed that had taken water samples from the area of Atchanan River and didn't find pollution there.
Reminder: the Hets wrote that still in August 2018 the Environmental and Mining Inspection Body initiated administrative proceedings based on the leaks from Artsvanik Tailing Dump of Zangezour Copper and Molybdenum Combine into the Norashenik (Atchanan) River. Inspection Head Arthur Grigoryan noted that details would be available after the inspections in Zangezour Copper and Molybdenum Combine. At the end of the inspections at ZCMC, on 21 January 2019, Arthur Grigoryan was dismissed under PM Nikol Pashinyan's decision. The society hasn't been provided with any official information about the findings of the inspections and the administrative proceedings.
According to the data of 'Environmental Monitoring and Information Center' SNCO of RA Nature Protection Ministry as of September 2018, the Atchanan River has the highest level of pollution – Category 5.
January 30, 2019 at 18:57