Sergey Hajinyan, engineer-mechanic
Levon Galstyan, geographer, Pan-Armenian Environmental Front
In the last four years (2011-2014) the increase in Lake Sevan has been drastically suspended. During these years the lake level increased only by 23 cm, when from 2002 to 2005 the increase accounted for 1.74 m. That is, in the last four years the lake lost 1.5 meters from its level or 1,875 billion cum water. By the way, the atmospheric precipitation for these two periods in the lake basin differed insignificantly (around 14%).
One of the main tools to suspend the increase was less volume of water as much as 600 million cum flowing into Lake Sevan through Arpa-Sevan tunnel as compared with the first four years.
It should be documented that as of 1 January 2015, the level of Lake Sevan was less by 11 cm than it was documented 5 years ago, when the maximum level was recorded in the summer of 2010.
Since 2004 no drop of water has been transferred from Spandaryan Reservoir to Kechout Reservoir though Vorotan-Arpa Tunnel. Moreover, no water is transferred from the Yeghegis River through “Arpa-Sevan” tunnel, just the opposite – instead of flowing into Lake Sevan most water flows back to the Yeghegis River to ensure the continuous operation of numerous SHPPs constructed on it.
The suspension of Lake Sevan level was launched still in 2004 on the eve of the operation of Vorotan Arpa Tunnel.
March 06, 2015 at 18:15