EcoLur
The fact that Nature Protection Ministry has accepted SHP Project on Daranak River for consideration sets wondering. As it’s known, the draft law “On Making Amendments to RA Law “On Lake Sevan”” is on the agenda of the National Assembly of Armenia, which says that the construction of SHPs in Sevan basin shall be prohibited. As substantiation, the daft law brings risks jeopardizing conservation of Lake Sevan ecosystem. Accepting Daranak SHP project to consideration means that Nature Protection Ministry neglects these risks.
It should be mentioned that the length of SHP pipe is 1729 m, while the sanitary flow supposed to be left in the river makes up 0.013 liters per second and 0.007 liters per second for each knob of the SHP. That is, the length of the river is 6.5km, and almost one third will be taken into pipes. The project says that the river landscape is presented with Alpine meadows, fields and steppe zones and has rich biodiversity characteristic to mountain landscape. It says that the basin has red-listed species, around 120-130 species of vertebrates and 650 species of invertebrates, but there are red-listed species in the project territory. Meanwhile the project makes a reference to the Red Book of 1987, which is already expired. In 2011 a new Red Book of Armenia was published, which includes 452 species of plants instead of the previous 367 and 153 species of vertebrate animals instead of the previous 99. Besides it, the book includes 155 species of invertebrates. This means the project doesn’t reflect the factual situation on biodiversity thus violating the provisions of RA Laws “On Flora”, “On Fauna”, European Landscape Convention, the UN Biodiversity Convention and eventually RA Law “On Lake Sevan”.
The landscape is the most vulnerable place in the project, as the hydropower station has the most impact on it. Construction works, changes in the regime of water self-purification, accumulation of sedimentary rock, turbulences in temperature and hydraulic regime have negative impact. All this results in the loss of places for fish spawning, water quality deterioration and river ecosystem elimination. Reminder: Armenia has worked out a new Red Book, which includes invertebrates having been not studied at all, as the project makes references to the old Red Book of Armenia, which doesn’t include invertebrates. These arguments were presented in the curse of the public hearings on 19 February by Silva Adamyan (“Center for Bird Lovers”NGO) and Inga Zarafyan (EcoLur NGO). The recording of the hearings is displayed on the website of EcoLur (http://www.ecolur.org/hy/news/water/governmental-decision-higher-for-environmental-expertise-than-environmental-laws/4596/).
We think that on the basis of the aforementioned the Nature Protection Ministry shall turn down the project of SHP on Daranak River.
March 12, 2013 at 19:55