ArmInfo. Small hydropower plants in Armenia will have to monitor the volume of water withdrawals. RA Government on The meeting on September 5 approved amendments to the previous decision of the Cabinet, according to which penalties for exceeding the limit on water intake are envisaged.
Presenting the draft decision, the Minister of Nature Protection of the Republic of Armenia Eric Grigoryan noted that until today administrative influence was applied only for violations of water quality. Now it is proposed to make additions and changes to the decision of the executive body, according to which, if the limit is exceeded, small hydropower plants will have to pay 4 million drams per year for each "extra" cubic meter of water. The Minister said that out of 188 small hydropower plants, 127 have already implemented water meters. The government's measure, as Eric Grigoryan noted, is precautionary and aimed at streamlining environmental issues. He noted that a number of small hydropower plants have already introduced a new methodology for environmental impact assessment. In addition, as the minister recalled, the construction of small hydropower plants is generally prohibited on a number of rivers of the republic. Recall that on October 24, 2018, the Armenian parliament amended the Water Code, according to which the construction of small hydroelectric power plants in places of fish spawning, as well as on rivers on which the derivative load exceeds 40%. Construction will be prohibited in the forest areas, as well as around natural monuments. In many rivers, an indicator of 40% was not observed, often up to 90% of the river flow was discharged into the pipe. The law is aimed not at banning the construction of new SHPPs, but at tracking their initial purpose - the production of an environmentally acceptable source of electricity. The Armenian government is interested in the development of small hydropower facilities, but not to the detriment of the environment. Small hydropower is part of renewable energy, the development of which is among the priorities of the country's government.
It should be noted that in the next 2 years it is planned to build another 32 small hydroelectric power stations. Meanwhile, their construction will depend on the compliance of the country's government with 10 environmental impact assessment criteria. This concerns the presence of endemic species of aquatic flora and fauna registered in the Red Book of Armenia, maintaining the actual flow of water at a level not exceeding the environmental release determined by the permit for water use, the presence of sanitary protection zones of aquatic ecosystems, the presence of natural monuments within a radius of 150 meters, and landslides, the availability of roads or the need for their construction in the construction sites of small hydroelectric power stations, the distance from settlements, the impact of noise on the environment and human health. It is also envisaged to suspend the validity of hydroelectric power station licenses in case of 40% or more congestion of rivers with recovery pipes.
As previously known in a conversation with ArmInfo correspondent, a well-known specialist in water resources in the country, Ph.D. Knarik Hovhannisyan, despite the fact that hydroelectric power plants are the most environmentally friendly in the list of other alternative sources of electricity, in recent years, due to the extremely extensive construction of small hydropower plants in Armenia on the country's waterways, the ecological state of water ecosystems has deteriorated sharply. This is due to violation of the regime of environmental releases that impede the conservation of biodiversity (flora and fauna) of aquatic ecosystems. Among other factors of disruption of the normal activity of natural ecosystems, the expert considers frequent exceeding the established limits for water withdrawal, violation of the norms for the construction and operation of hydraulic structures.