At the proposal of the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of Armenia, the Government submitted to the National Assembly a bill to carry out an additional water release of 30 million cubic meters from Lake Sevan. On September 12, during an extraordinary session, the National Assembly adopted the bill immediately in the first and second readings, in full. Thus, the total water release from Lake Sevan amounted to 200 million cubic meters. The additional release was scheduled to be taken before October 1.
The bill was not circulated on either the Government’s official website or the unified www.e-draft.am platform for publication of draft legal acts.
As an already adopted document, it is available on the National Assembly’s website.
According to the document, the additional water release will mitigate the water deficit by irrigating lands under the Sevan-Hrazdan cascade irrigation system.
The profit resulting from the difference between revenues and expenses of additional electricity generated by HPPs within the Sevan-Hrazdan Cascade, and sold by “International Energy Corporation” CJSC and “Yerevan Thermal Power Plant” CJSC, will be directed toward government-defined targeted investments.
It should be noted that the Ministry of Environment’s “Hydrometeorology and Monitoring Center” SNCO has stopped publishing daily data on the filling levels of reservoirs, as well as on Lake Sevan’s water level, inflows, and releases. On the SNCO’s website, information on Lake Sevan’s water balance and reservoirs can only be found via the search system. The most recent data, published on September 7, shows that before the additional release, the lake’s level stood at 1900.49 m, which is 9 cm lower than on the same day of the previous year.
It should also be mentioned that this year Lake Sevan once again experienced a bloom of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae).
October 01, 2025 at 14:28