The largest Artsvanik tailing dump in Armenia, located near Kapan town in Syunik Region, has been causing problems for many years due to environmental pollution, the impact on the population's health, and in terms of the sale of agricultural products in the settlements adjacent to the tailing dump.
One of the affected villages is Syunik, whose residents are most concerned about the increase in the number of cancer patients. In her conversation with EcoLur, Syunik resident Susanna Altunyan said that the increase in cancer cases is connected with the existence of a tailing dump.
Another problem caused by the tailing dump is the pollution of water resources with heavy metals. In Syunik, irrigation is carried out with the water of the Achanan River, where toxic tailings are filled in case there is an accident with Artsvanik tailings pipeline. "If there is an accident, everything in the stream is covered with sediment. Crops do not grow. If you can harvest once, it is good. They turn yellow, they get sick because the water is dirty and the air is dirty. If there is wind, the smell coming from the tailing dump can be felt,” Susanna Altunyan said.
According to him, the other problem is the sale of agricultural products irrigated with polluted water. "We take our crops and vegetables to the city, they don't want it, they say your water is dirty. We have to sell at lower prices. "Now we don’t consider where the harvest in the orchards is harmful, or not, we use it," she said.
About Artsvanik Tailing Dump
Artsvanik tailing dump is the largest tailing dump in Armenia. The current volume of this tailing dump is 75% of the total volume of all tailing dumps in the country. The tails of the factory having the same name operated by Zangezur Copper and Molybdenum Combine CJSC (ZCMC) are dumped in the tailing dump.
According to Inga Zarafyan, President of "EcoLur" Informational NGO, the area near the tailing dump is full of various toxic substances. "Radioactive materials can also be found. Everything that is found in Qajaran mine, we can find more saturated here," she said.
Soil contamination can have potentially toxic effects on living organisms through the food chain. Heavy metals are transferred to the soil, from the soil to vegetables, and appear in the human body when eaten. According to the Center for Ecological Noosphere Research of NAS RA, the content of arsenic, lead, mercury, copper, molybdenum, nickel, chromium, zinc, cadmium grown in Syunik village is high, which means that heavy metals have penetrated the food chain.
Lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic can cause mutagenic, teratogenic, carcinogenic effects even at low concentrations. Excessive molybdenum, copper and zinc can lead to disorders of the body's biological function.
Tailing Dump instead of Village
The area currently occupied by the Artsvanik tailings dump used to be arable land and pasture. The locals were engaged in agriculture here. But year after year, arable land and pasture have shrunk, giving way to tailing dumps full of poxic compounds.
In an interview with EcoLur prior to the community enlargement, Artsvanik community head stated that the land was first taken from the Artsvanik village for the tailings dump in 1973 - 240 hectares, then in 2006 - 102 hectares. On May 21, 2015, 274.8378 hectares were by decision 791 N.
With the governmental resolution 791-N dated on May 21, 2015 an eminent public domain was recognized for the extension of the Artsvanik tailing dump in the administrative boundaries of Artsvanik, Sevaqar, Atchani, Chapni and Syunik rural communities - a total of 491,8093 hectares. Out of these 5 villages, the most public eminent domain was recognized towards Artsvanik village with 274,8378 hectares of agricultural land.
Residents of these villages, especially Artsvanik, were against providing their lands for the needs of ZCMC. After the revolution, in May 2018, the residents of Artsvanik, Chapni and Sevakar villages closed the Goris-Kapan interstate road in the area of Artsvanik, demanding to stop the exploitation of Artsvanik tailing dump by Zangezur Copper and Molybdenum Combine.
On February 1, 2019 Zangezur Copper and Molybdenum Charitable Foundation and the residents of Artsvanik, Sevakar and Chapni villages signed an agreement to donate 40,000 AMD to each resident from February 1, 2019 to January 31, 2020 aimed at mitigating the adverse impact on the social situation of beneficiaries actually residing in the rural areas adjacent to Artsvanik tailing dump.
However, the donations did not alleviate the concerns of the villagers. People remember with regret that they used to get a big harvest and income from their gardens and arable lands having remained under the tailing dump. "Only this plot of land near the house has been left, the rest has gone under the tailings dam. We were gathering vegetables, the orchards were full of pears and apples. Everyone was cultivating their garden, bringing their crops home," the resident of Artsvanik said. The latter mentioned that the provision of lands to ZCMC was not voluntary. People did not give voluntarily, the water came, reached and covered the area," he said.
Inga Zarafyan noted that the expansion of the tailings area is especially noticeable in recent years. She stressed that the volume of the tailing dumpspeaks about how much the volume of work at Qajaran mine has increased.
"The EIA application for the change of the mine resource extraction project states that the potential volume of the tailing dump should reach 350 million cubic meters. It said that a few years ago it was 212 million cubic meters, but the final number is possible. If, according to official data, the company produces 22 million cubic meters of ore a year, out of which 21 million turns into tails, then what should happen to this tailing dump in a few years? There is no other gorge here. So they have to expand the tailing dump at the expense of the adjacent villages. I have no doubt that in a few years we will have a new application, new territories, a new tailing dump ...," Inga Zarafyan said.
The director of "Forests of Armenia" NGO, ecologist-lawyer Nazeli Vardanyan said, "Two years ago, it was exactly half of this area. We can see pollution of the water basin will take place. It is absorbed, flows into the artesian water basin, which is connected with Syunik water basin feeding Spandaryan reservoir, which in turn flows into Lake Sevan.” The other problem, according to Nazeli Vardanyan, is the lack of buffer zones. "There is no fence, no protection.”
It should be noted that in 2018 ZCMC announced the search for a new tailing dump area. However, so far there is no official announcement on where, when the construction of the new tailing dump is planned, when Artsvanik tailing dump will be reclaimed.
Artsvanik Village and Tailing Dump
November 09, 2021 at 15:01