EcoLur
If mining industry will start in our village, it will be destroyed as Agarak Village was: this is Shvanidzor Village Administration Head Hovhannes Ohanyan’s opinion expressed during his interview with EcoLur. RA NA Ex Deputy Grigor Harutyunyan and the villagers also took part in this meeting. Geological prospecting for gold reserves and other nonferrous metals is conducted next to the village. The owner of this permit is businesswoman Silva Hambardzumyan famous for her deals with foreign companies in mining. She has already got the permit to conduct prospecting in Litchq. Different rumours swirl about Litchq. The main cause of concern is that clean springs of Litchq supply most populated areas of Meghri Region with water, Meghri and Agarak Towns. “If mine development is to start in Litchq, there are no guarantees for the water not to be polluted, and then no one will be able to live in Meghri Gorge,” Grigor Harutyunyan thinks.
“With no state support Shvanidzor Village is doomed,” – said Shvanidzor Village Head. Agricultural production has drastically decreased. “If our village produced 64-65 tons of fig to make jams, but at present no one buys our products. Reprocessing factories don’t even come to our place, and our villagers don’t have any transport means. Whatever they grow, they exchange for goods, shoes and clothes,” Ohanyan said. The youth has left the village. We used to have 280 pupils, but now we have only 43 pupils. “How we can live here if we have no conditions, neither water, nor sewage,” Ohanyan said.
Meghri has 1200 military men. The locals are sure, if the army starts buying products from the farmers; both the army and the village have a good opportunity. Unfortunately, under the ex deputy, the army concludes agreements on goods supply only with oligarchs. “They get rich, but the village gets poor”, he said.
April 16, 2010