State Committee for Urban Development: 70% of buildings in Armenia do not comply with seismic standards

ArmInfo. 70% of buildings  in Armenia do not comply with seismic standards. The head of the  State Committee for Urban Development of Armenia Narek Sargsyan  announced during a press conference on February 23. In this regard,  he stressed that the strengthening and reconstruction of these  buildings will become a big financial burden for the state.

According to him, in 2017 the government adopted a single strategy of  seismic safety, according to which the relevant work will be carried  out. "This is a long and difficult process, during which work will be  regularly carried out to improve the seismic stability of buildings  in the short and long term," he concluded.

Meanwhile, according to the newspaper Golos Armenii referring to  Sputnik, director of the Armproject Institute Grigor Azizyan believes  that most of the residential buildings in Yerevan are unstable to  powerful earthquakes, primarily because of age. However, as the head  of the Seismic Resistant Construction Center of the National Service  of Seismic Protection of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Zaven  Khlgatyan notes, all buildings every 10 years must pass certification  and research for seismic resistance. The cost of certification of one  building is about 300 thousand drams (about $ 650), and an in-depth  study of seismic resistance - about one million drams (about $  2,200). In Yerevan alone, the number of residential buildings is  about 4800. "Passportation and the subsequent strengthening of these  buildings require huge financial costs, unfortunately, these funds  are not yet available in the budget, which, however, does not negate  the urgency of the problem," Khlgatyan said. For Armenia, the maximum  seismic resistance is 9 points. In addition, as noted by Khlgatyan,  out of the indicated 4800 metropolitan buildings, about 300 have an  accident rate of III or IV degree. The danger is also dense  buildings, mainly in the center of Yerevan.