EcoLur
The Armenian Government shall pose a demand to 'Teghout' CJSC so as the company recovers all the damage it has caused, recovers all the areas it has violated and provides adequate compensation of damage. Only after this, we can speak under what conditions the company shall continue its operation. 'EcoLur' Informational NGO Inga Zarafyan said about this at the discussion held after screening the documentary entitled 'Teghout After 10 Years: For The Better?' shot by CivilNet on 26 July 2018. '10 years ago we used to have a clean river in Teghout, used to have forests, clean areas, opportunities to develop ecologically clean productions. After ten years the situation has radically changed and we can apparently see we have a number of serious economic, financial, social and environmental hazards, which haven't been appraised by the state: no one has so far been liable for this. Moreover, in 2016 under Hovik Abrahamyan's decree, the inspections were stopped in mines, business entities and also in 'Teghout', which had been operating without any control for 3 years. It should be appraised what has been there and how much ore they have mined. Shnogh population clearly clarified that as an environmental crime and we fully agree with this definition,' Inga Zarafyan said. The other speaker of the discussions, economist Alexander Grigoryan, noted it is necessary to stop perceiving mining in Armenia as the engine of the economy. 'In 2008, 2010, 2012, during the crises, mining was perceived as an engine of economic development. Under the conditions of new institutes, mining can't be considered as the main branch or engine of economic development or export, as the current institutes can't support today's technologies and mines. Another speaker, Head of RA Nature Protection and Soil Inspection Body Arthur Grigoryan noted that Teghout copper and molybdenum mine is located in an area, where mine development wasn't the best solution for socio-economic problems of the given area, also in terms of state tax revenue. And the socio-economic situation hasn't improved over the recent 10 years. He mentioned that under PM's decision, a working group had been established, which should examine all the activities in 28 metallic mines. Besides, inspections are carried out in parallel. 'The function of our body in the government is nature protection. We are responsible for nature conservation and no business activities will be conducted at the expense of sustainable environmental damage,' Arthur Grigoryan said.
July 26, 2018 at 19:35