Thursday, April 12 2018 15:17

ArmInfo. Today, the Armenian government approved the rate of water intake and withdrawal from Lake Sevan in the amount of 170 million cubic meters. If necessary, the size will be revised.

This was stated by the chairman of the State Committee of Water Economy of Armenia Arsen Harutyunyan on April 12 after the meeting of the government. "We are not ready to announce large volumes today," he said.

According to the certificate of support to the document, as of March 5, the area of irrigated land was 39 thousand hectares. Taking into account the level of water in the reservoirs of Armenia in the amount of 482 million cubic meters, the deficit is 283.5 million cubic meters.

The day before, the head of Vodkhoz reported that, as of the moment, the occupancy rate is 480.5 million cubic meters. m, which is less by 30 million cubic meters compared to the same period of 2017, and by 115 million cubic meters compared to 2016. m. The level of Lake Sevan in this period was 1900 meters 56 cm, the same as in the corresponding period of 2017. It was noted that from March 22 the process of water supply through the Arpa-Sevan tunnel started. According to Arsen Harutyunyan, in terms of water supply, the main problem is connected with the land plots irrigated from the Akhuryan reservoir. As of the moment, there are 336 million cubic meters of water in the reservoir. water, which is lower by 36 million cubic meters compared to the same period of 2017. The chairman of the committee reported that to solve the problem, measures have been taken to use 20 mobile pumping stations, while work is under way in various regions in the direction of drilling deep wells.

It should also be recalled that the National Assembly of Armenia on July 17, 2017 approved the law on increasing the volume of water discharge from Lake Sevan from 170 million cubic meters. up to 270 million cubic meters. The reason for this decision was the fact that the filling of the Aparan and Azat reservoirs was 17 million cubic meters less than in the previous one, and the Hrazdan River is less than 40 million cubic meters full. In addition, the Akhuryanskoye reservoir was filled with 105 million cubic meters less. Despite the fact that the Ministry of Nature Protection of Armenia opposed the proposal to increase the water intake from Sevan, and independent experts unanimously reiterated that the decrease in the water level in Sevan will lead to irreversible consequences in connection with the intensification of the water logging process, the law was adopted that, like expected, reflected at the level of Lake Sevan. The authors of the law assured that additional releases of water per 100 million cubic meters, according to calculations, could lead to a decrease in the lake level by 8 cm, in which case, even in comparison with the same day of the previous year, a high level of Lake Sevan water will be provided at 10 cm (18-8).  According to official data, in 2017 water intake totaled 266.757 million cubic meters of water, instead of the envisaged 270 million cubic meters.