Apocalypse of Local Significance in Syunik Village

EcoLur

Zangezour Copper and Molybdenum Combine, ZCMC, dumps its tails not only to the tailing dump, but also to the river. Syunik Village residents, 3 km far away from Kapan Town, got ZCMC industrial dumps instead on the water of river wich flows through Vardavank gorge. Local “Meghu” NGO Chairman Vladik Ghukasyan raised an alarm signal and applied to the territorial representatives of Nature Protection Ministry – Syunik Environmental Inspection. “They said they are not aware of this problem, I said I’m here to inform you. The concentrate is in the river, check where and what leaked.”

EcoLur working group and local journalists, Meri Soghomonyan (the Aravot) and Eva Grigoryan (www.armregions.am) met the residents of the affected zones in Syunik Village. Because of heat, the liquid is gradually evaporating, and even with bare eye you can see this is not just dirty water, but concentrate. By the way, the village has several herds of elite cows, which are given drinking water, and fed with grass or hay mowed not in the village polluted with tails, but brought from far places. This household has been organized by ZCMC Director Maksim Hakobyan, maybe that’s why the village administration didn’t make any fuss, though it has all the right to do it.  Village Head Samvel Sargsyan didn’t deny its problem, but commented it in his own way.  It should be noted that still in 2007 Nature protection Ministry presented the scientific research of the Center for Noopshere Studies of NAS RA, which said that the situation ion the village connected with pollution of soil, water and agricultural products with toxic metals is disastrous. Besides this, the Ministry gives ZCMC a wide berth, while the State Environmental Inspection keeps already inaccessible neutrality.

September 02, 2011 at 12:14