ArmInfo. Numerous small hydroelectric power plants of Armenia cause serious damage to the country's ecology, as a result of which the situation with fish stocks in rivers has become simply catastrophic. This was announced by the Minister of Nature Protection Erik Grigoryan at the meeting of the government on August 23, presenting the draft amendments to the RA Water Code.
According to the minister, as a result of the uncontrolled activity of small hydropower stations, the fish population in the water reservoirs of the republic has sharply decreased. The bill proposes to prohibit the granting of permits for the construction of new small hydroelectric power stations, if their construction is planned on water bodies with fish listed in the Red Book. Also, a ban on the construction of small HPPs will be introduced if the load of diversion pipelines is more than 40%, and also in the absence of water volume measurement points. In addition, in the absence of a management plan for water basins, the permitting period for the use of small hydropower stations cannot exceed 5 years. In order to produce electricity, if there is a water management plan, the permit for water releases is given for a period of 1 year, but in case of obtaining a construction license, it can automatically be considered extended, but for a period not exceeding 20 years.
The government approved a draft law, which in due course will be sent to the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia.
Nevertheless, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan urged the responsible persons to develop a "road map" to address the problems associated with inefficient use of water resources. He also demanded to strengthen control over the legality in the sphere of ecology, and to approach the issue resolutely.
Earlier in an interview with the correspondent. ArmInfo famous in the country specialist on water resources Knarik Hovhannisyan stated that due to the extensive construction of small hydropower stations in Armenia on the waterways of the republic, the ecological state of water systems deteriorated sharply. This is due to the violation of the regime of environmental releases, which hinder the conservation of biodiversity of aquatic ecosystems. Among other factors of the disturbance of normal activity of natural ecosystems, the expert considers frequent excess of the established water withdrawal limits, violation of the norms of construction and operation of hydraulic structures.
99% of operating in the country MHPPs are built on attracted financial resources. At one time, international structures provided relatively cheap credit resources, to which Armenian entrepreneurs built more than half of small hydro power plants on the basis of already used equipment. In a terrible state there are pipes on the hydroelectric power station, which are obsolete, and their quality leaves much to be desired. To date, 178 small hydropower plants operate in Armenia, the total installed capacity of which is about 328 MW, production is about 957 kWh. According to the licenses granted, in the process of construction there are 39 small HPPs with a total design capacity of 75 MW and an annual output of 260 million kWh.
