As a result of the flooding of the Debed River, there are many collapses in Lori Region: the first floors and basements of roads, bridges, houses, buildings and structures were flooded, some settlements remained surrounded. According to RA Ministry of Internal Affairs, Dzoraget-Alaverdi-Qarkop, Bagratashen-Ptghavan highways and the one-way highway to Haghartsin are closed due to the flooding of the Debed River. In one of the gas stations in Alaverdi Town, the compressors were under water, according to preliminary data, an explosion occurred as a result of a short circuit of electric wires.
EcoLur spoke with Oleg Dulgaryan, President of Alaverdi-based "Center for Community Mobilization and Support" NGO, who is currently in Poqr Ayrum village.
According to him, the Debed river completely washed away whatever was on the roads in Alaverdi, it took away and remained under water. There are long queues at the shops, people are shopping, they don't know when they will get out of the lockdown. There are small shops in our village, people took everything away, if there is a blockade like this for 2-3 days, a humanitarian crisis threatens," he said.
Oleg Dulgaryan responded to EcoLur's question whether there are risks in the current situation from the viewpoint of the safety of tailings. "In general, this situation is dangerous. There can be different types of collapses and landslides. It is not excluded that landslides will occur in various places now and, of course, heavy objects such as tailing dumps are at risk, especially those that should have been rehabilitated, but are still not rehabilitated and continue to fill up."
May 26, 2024 at 14:17