Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Enviromentals Warn Sevan Could Become Ecological Disaster Zone

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Enviromentals Warn Sevan Could Become Ecological Disaster Zone

    ENVIROMENTALS WARN SEVAN COULD BECOME ECOLOGICAL DISASTER ZONE
    Astghik Khachatryan

    http://hetq.am/en/ecology/sevan-4/
    20 09/03/31 | 15:12

    Ecology important

    At a press conference held today, Garineh Danielyan, President of the
    "Association for Human Sustainable Development" sounding a public
    warning regarding the future of Lake Sevan.

    "At issue is the fact that there are mines around Lake Sevan. In the
    end we will destroy the Sevan beachfront, the tourist industry and
    agriculture and develop the mining sector instead," Ms. Danielyan
    warned.

    What most worries the environmental community is while ore has been
    transported from the mines up till now, with the advent of flotation
    factories, the entire reprocessing process can take place in the
    Sevan basin itself. The companies to watch out for in this regard
    are GeoProMining and Gegamet.

    According to Inga Zarafyan, President of the Ecolur Informational
    Center, Gegamet has been granted permission to run some mines
    at Shorzha and Chil but that the company never informed the
    government that it is preparing to reprocess the ore at the Sevan
    basin. Ms. Zarafyan claimed that this was the reason that the company
    was given the green light by the government in the beginning.

    Ms. Zarafyan stated that she and her colleagues had seen the
    reprocessing going on and that they had informed the Ministry of
    Nature Protection. According to her, the ministry merely saw fit to
    send an inspection team to the area, but that the mines themselves
    are still operating. She stated that the ministry had stated that
    the reprocessing itself most likely should take place in Hrazdan.

    Ms. Danielyan noted that GeoProMining still hadn't been granted a
    construction permit for a reprocessing plant at Sevan for the Sotk
    gold mine. She said that the issue of exploiting the Sotk mine had
    been reviewed during the Soviet period and that a decision had been
    reached to extract the ore and transport the ore for reprocessing
    to Ararat. Now that GeoProMining has purchased the entire facility
    it has decided not to transport the ore. This decision has provoked
    the ire of the environmental community and concerned citizens.

    The "SOS Sevan" initiative group (Eco-Alliance) calls the Armenian
    authorities in the person of the President of Armenia, RA National
    Assembly, the Government, National Security Council, as well as all
    political parties, non-governmental organizations, international
    community, legal authorities to support the public campaign to save
    Sevan Lake, one of the major stocks of drinking water of Armenia
    and the whole Caucasus region, to show good will and make the
    "GeoProMining" Company stop its illegal activity. "We are appealing
    to the state authorities to review the contracts with the mentioned
    company and declare the given licenses invalid"
Working...
X