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Yerevan Djur Can't Guarantee Residents Won't Be Poisoned Even Though the
Utility Claims It Has Implemented All Its Obligations Sara Petrosyan*
http://hetq.am/eng/investigation/16762/yerevan-djur-can't-guarantee-residents-won't-be-poisoned-even-though-the-utility-claims-it-has-implemented-all-its-obligations.html
*
17:43, July 19, 2012
There was a case of widespread water poisoning on June 1-3 in 2011 in the 11
th neighbourhood of Nubarashen in Yerevan. According to the official
statement, 87 individuals received treatment for intestinal infections at
the Nork Infectious Diseases Clinic. Forensic testing showed that one of
the patients was extremely sick, 58 were moderately sick and 28 were
lightly affected.
A few days later, between July 9 and 14, some more cases of water poisoning
were registered in the villages of Nor Kharberd and Ayntap adjacent to the
capital Yerevan. The official statement noted that sanitary and
anti-infection rules had been violated in unknown circumstances and that,
as a result, eleven residents of Nor Kharberd and two from Ayntap were
hospitalized with severe intestinal infections. In particular, 16 year-old
Lilit Mouradyan from Nor Kharberd, who had given birth one month before the
incident, died from kidney failure on July 3, 2011 at the Erebouni Medical
Center. Her family members were being treated at the Masis Hospital.
Criminal cases were launched regarding both cases. The case involving the
Nubarashen 11th neighbourhood, being investigated by the Erebouni Police
Investigations Division, was dropped due to the lack of a corpus delicti
in the top management of *Yerevan Djur* (Yerevan Water CJSC) (Criminal
Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia: Article 31 Part 1, Point 1).
The criminal case launched on September 14, 2011 regarding the `instances
of widespread sickness' in the villages of Ayntap was suspended based on
the Code's Article 31, Part 1, Point 1 of the same Code - *Criminal
proceedings may be suspended, completely or partly, upon the resolution of
the prosecutor, the investigator, the agency for inquest, or the court, if:
1) the person, who must be presented as the accused, is not identified.*
One year later, on June 25, 2012, the police reported that: `Due to as yet
unknown circumstances, in the Ararat Marz villages of Nor Kharberd and
Ayntap, sanitary and anti-infectious rules were violated, resulting in
widespread illnesses among residents.' We need only remember that at a
press conference in the summer of 23011 regarding the Nor Kharberd case,
Artavazd Vanyan, who heads the Hygienic and Anti-Infectious Monitoring
Inspectorate at the RA Ministry of Health, stated: `...anti-infectious
studies show that it was water-related. Without doubt, the source was
water.'
Recently, I informed residents of the Nubarashen 11th neighbourhood that
nobody had been held responsible for the mass poisoning that took place one
year ago. `But they said that they would get to the bottom of it and that
they pay compensation. They haven't changed one pipe and haven't fixed
the
water supply. In fact, two days after we were released from hospital, they
had the nerve to come by and read our water meter,' said neighbourhood
resident Emma Hayrapetyan who didn't seem all that surprised at my
revelation.
*18 month-old Emma in Nork Infectious Disease Hospital* *Emma Hayrapetyan
*
Her three grandchildren, 18 month old Emma, Hakob and Sargis, spent four
days in hospital. Before being admitted, they all experienced diarrhea,
nausea and dehydration for two days. Everyone in the neighbourhood suffered
the same symptoms. They told me that each came up with their own
explanation as to what was happening and that they all tried their own home
remedies as treatment. Arevik, a mother of three young children, told me
she took them to the polyclinic since two of the kids were suffering from
acute weakness, nausea and diarrhea. She was pregnant and was experiencing
the same symptoms. Arevik told me that the doctor advised her to take
Regidron as a water restorative, but when the children took a turn for the
worse, she collapsed as well and called an emergency ambulance.
It never crossed their minds that nearby residents felt the same and that
it was a mass poisoning from water. The news spread when calls to emergency
ambulances increases and several of the vehicles approached the same
building. Neighborhood residents relate that the ambulances couldn't
transport all of the patients and that emergency staff were giving
intravenous injections in the apartments. They kept the children in the
hospital for four days and released them to continue treatment at home even
though they hadn't fully recovered. After returning home, they purchased
medicines for quite some time. Some residents organized a variety of
self-treatment methods and confess that their children still suffer from
various ailments today. A frequent complaint is intestinal tract problems.
Adults were treated at home. One the first day, water and Regidron were
distributed, and that was all.
Emma Hayrapetyan says that during the next four days the neighbourhood had
no water supply. When the supply resumed, it ran hot and chalky for 2-3
days. On the fourth day, the water color cleared a bit but it tasted awful
but it was cold.
Yerevan Municipal Prosecutor Hrach Badalyan summarized the police
investigation thusly: `At the intersection of 11th and 9th Streets in
Nubarashen it was found that the water pipeline was damaged and that there
had been a water leakage for about one year. As a result the ground was
always wet. In other words, discovering the water leak, fixing the problem
and preventing the mass sickness of residents weren't particularly
complicated.'
The six month preliminary investigation by the police found that: `The
cause of the mass sickness of Nubarashen residents was the infiltration of
sewage waste infectious agents into the human organism transported via
the drinking water. Specialists have concluded that over time that sewage
flows and the infectious agents at the intersection got into the potable
water distribution pipe due to a lack of pressure, thus causing residents
to seek hospital care with severe intestinal infections.'
In its decision to drop the case, the pre-investigation examining body
touched up the guilty individuals and concluded that, `no one in the
company was tasked with the responsibility of carrying our periodic testing
or inspection and that there was no in-company procedure to expose
accidents or water seepage.' No evaluation of guilt was assigned to the
water supply company even though immediately after the warning of the
incident had been sounded the State Prosecutor General, in an advisory
session, had called for the timely expose of the `guilty individuals and
organizations'.
Yerevan Water was the water supply company for the Nubarashen
11thneighbourhood and the villages of Nor Kharberd and Ayntap as of
May 30,
2006. Regarding what took place in the villages, company General Manager
Gor Grigoryan noted that both *Yerevan Djur* and Hayjrmoughkoyughi
(Armenian Water and Sewage) were both supplying water to the villages in
question, but that instances of poisoning didn't fall within their
parameters. `They are private water pipes and neither of us operates them,'
he said.
In the management contract signed between the Republic of Armenia and the
French company Veolia Water, it states that the operator must respond on an
operational basis to all received petitions and complaints, and that fines
will be levied for not doing so within the prescribed average deadline.
Gagik Margaryan, Director of *Yerevan Djur*'s Customer Relations Division,
says that due to modern technologies installed in the 1-85 service more
than 1.5 years ago, the company is immediately informed of customer
warnings.
`Once the warning enters the system, all appropriate division heads see
it
at the same time. The information is passed along to the regional engineer
who organizes the work to be carried out,' says Margaryan.
*Yerevan Djur General Manager Gor Grigoryan*
Working in such operational conditions, it remains unanswered why the
company wasn't able to prevent the three day breakdown in Nubarashen,
especially when the company director stated that `we were informed about
the incident within minutes'. More correctly, General Manager Gor Grigoryan
revealed that it wasn't possible to pinpoint the location of the accident
since, `We have a tortured and sick system where individuals connect water
pipes willy-nilly to the system and no one knows anything about it.' He
didn't rule out that such cases could happen again and noted, `We are not
insured given the conditions of today's water supply system. Today, there
are more holes than metal in the pipes. It's simply that the continuity of
the water supply has decreased the risk factor.'
As of January 1, 2010, the Commercial Authority (headed by Gagik Margaryan
at the time) of *Yerevan Djur* was dealing with customer complaints. In the
fourth year of the implementation of the contract the Danish company Rambol
conducted a technical, operational, service and management audit of *Yerevan
Djur* for 2009-2010. From an organization stance, according to the audit, a
solution to the problem had been given. `Warnings received by residents or
organization regarding water supply accidents, schedule violations,
sewage as well as courtyard pump breakdowns will be received by the `1-85
Call Center' customer hotline.'
The audit also says: `There are frequent complaints that it is hard to
contact the 1-85 Call Center. The public perception is that service level
of the lessee is severely lacking when it comes to quickly fixing
breakdowns. Even though the response time to customer petitions did not
exceed accepted norms, what was considered unsatisfactory is that the
average response time in the fourth year doubled in comparison to the third
year. *Yerevan Djur* must explain why it took repair crews twice as long to
fix breakdowns in the fourth year as opposed to the third.'
The Ministry of Health's website (June 3, 2011), after residents were
hospitalized, states that the Southern Branch of *Yerevan Djur* and Yerevan
Municipality specialists have already repaired the accident. People in the
know claim that the company would only initiate repair work when there was
a hue and cry raised; thus it's no wonder that the accident here was fixed
after people started showing up in hospital wards.
In a letter to Serzh Denis Popof, former General Manager of *Yerevan Djur*,
the heads of the company's branches and two division chiefs complained
about obstacles arising in organizing work activities and called on him to
take drastic measures to remedy the problem.
They wrote: `We appreciate the investment made in equipment, but we have
claimed and claim now that the main investment must be directed to changing
broken down water pipes and non-working valves. This isn't happening in
practice. Pipe insulation work has stopped and we are essentially wearing
down and already dilapidated system. In these conditions, the branch
offices, at tremendous effort, can just about manage to repair all the
breakdowns. Furthermore, the branches are sometimes instructed to change
100-400 meters of water pipe. This is unacceptable and a major violation of
branch functions...'
*`Technical management' section of contract*
Point 8
`locating and monitoring of external seepage; taking measures to prevent
and/or decrease such losses'
Point 9
Planning of greater protection and repair projects, including restoration
and repair of equipment, that are incorporated in the business plans and
the projects for greater protection and repair.
Point 14
Preservation of underground pipes that assist in drainage of surface water,
since these pipes are still joined to the sewage system.
Despite the fact that the company failed to carry out its responsibilities,
the General Prosecutor also did not see a *corpus delicti* (Latin: "body of
crime") in the act of the company's general manager. The prosecutor, as
mediator, merely urged the Yerevan mayor to look into the water seepage
issue and come up with alternative ways to expose hidden breakdowns, adding
that the measures of *Yerevan Djur* were inadequate.
In a letter to the Yerevan mayor, we asked to be informed as to the status
of the general prosecutor's mediation.
`In order to increase the effectiveness of the process, the company has
acquired new and more sensitive equipment to locate seepages and pressure
fluctuations. The problem is more complicated in the sewage system, where
the absence of pressure prohibits the application of such measures. In this
regard, studies are being conducted and a specific approach will be crafted
designed to provide modern solutions,' stated K. Ghazaryan, acting head of
the Yerevan Municipality's Department of Communal Services.
*Yerevan Djur* General Manager Gor Grigoryan, replying to the same issue,
states, `These are all modern, nevertheless they cannot insure a 100%
result. The only alternative is to change the water network.'
According to the director, given the state of the network today, when it is
impossible to reveal who has installed pipes and where, they will not be
able to prevent such cases. In order to have new pipes will require great
expenditures. Costs factored into water utility rates only cover the repair
of the most damaged sections located. The director says that the
government must provide a solution to this issue by way of credits and that
there had previously been an agreement for credit programs.
The general manager stated that the company had fulfilled all its
obligations, including the investment portion, and that he and Gagik
Margaryan regarded all complaints about the company's activities and
shortcomings as `absurd' chatter.
(To be continued)
(*Scoop*, a Danish-based network for investigative journalists, assisted in
the preparation of this investigative article)
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Utility Claims It Has Implemented All Its Obligations Sara Petrosyan*
http://hetq.am/eng/investigation/16762/yerevan-djur-can't-guarantee-residents-won't-be-poisoned-even-though-the-utility-claims-it-has-implemented-all-its-obligations.html
*
17:43, July 19, 2012
There was a case of widespread water poisoning on June 1-3 in 2011 in the 11
th neighbourhood of Nubarashen in Yerevan. According to the official
statement, 87 individuals received treatment for intestinal infections at
the Nork Infectious Diseases Clinic. Forensic testing showed that one of
the patients was extremely sick, 58 were moderately sick and 28 were
lightly affected.
A few days later, between July 9 and 14, some more cases of water poisoning
were registered in the villages of Nor Kharberd and Ayntap adjacent to the
capital Yerevan. The official statement noted that sanitary and
anti-infection rules had been violated in unknown circumstances and that,
as a result, eleven residents of Nor Kharberd and two from Ayntap were
hospitalized with severe intestinal infections. In particular, 16 year-old
Lilit Mouradyan from Nor Kharberd, who had given birth one month before the
incident, died from kidney failure on July 3, 2011 at the Erebouni Medical
Center. Her family members were being treated at the Masis Hospital.
Criminal cases were launched regarding both cases. The case involving the
Nubarashen 11th neighbourhood, being investigated by the Erebouni Police
Investigations Division, was dropped due to the lack of a corpus delicti
in the top management of *Yerevan Djur* (Yerevan Water CJSC) (Criminal
Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia: Article 31 Part 1, Point 1).
The criminal case launched on September 14, 2011 regarding the `instances
of widespread sickness' in the villages of Ayntap was suspended based on
the Code's Article 31, Part 1, Point 1 of the same Code - *Criminal
proceedings may be suspended, completely or partly, upon the resolution of
the prosecutor, the investigator, the agency for inquest, or the court, if:
1) the person, who must be presented as the accused, is not identified.*
One year later, on June 25, 2012, the police reported that: `Due to as yet
unknown circumstances, in the Ararat Marz villages of Nor Kharberd and
Ayntap, sanitary and anti-infectious rules were violated, resulting in
widespread illnesses among residents.' We need only remember that at a
press conference in the summer of 23011 regarding the Nor Kharberd case,
Artavazd Vanyan, who heads the Hygienic and Anti-Infectious Monitoring
Inspectorate at the RA Ministry of Health, stated: `...anti-infectious
studies show that it was water-related. Without doubt, the source was
water.'
Recently, I informed residents of the Nubarashen 11th neighbourhood that
nobody had been held responsible for the mass poisoning that took place one
year ago. `But they said that they would get to the bottom of it and that
they pay compensation. They haven't changed one pipe and haven't fixed
the
water supply. In fact, two days after we were released from hospital, they
had the nerve to come by and read our water meter,' said neighbourhood
resident Emma Hayrapetyan who didn't seem all that surprised at my
revelation.
*18 month-old Emma in Nork Infectious Disease Hospital* *Emma Hayrapetyan
*
Her three grandchildren, 18 month old Emma, Hakob and Sargis, spent four
days in hospital. Before being admitted, they all experienced diarrhea,
nausea and dehydration for two days. Everyone in the neighbourhood suffered
the same symptoms. They told me that each came up with their own
explanation as to what was happening and that they all tried their own home
remedies as treatment. Arevik, a mother of three young children, told me
she took them to the polyclinic since two of the kids were suffering from
acute weakness, nausea and diarrhea. She was pregnant and was experiencing
the same symptoms. Arevik told me that the doctor advised her to take
Regidron as a water restorative, but when the children took a turn for the
worse, she collapsed as well and called an emergency ambulance.
It never crossed their minds that nearby residents felt the same and that
it was a mass poisoning from water. The news spread when calls to emergency
ambulances increases and several of the vehicles approached the same
building. Neighborhood residents relate that the ambulances couldn't
transport all of the patients and that emergency staff were giving
intravenous injections in the apartments. They kept the children in the
hospital for four days and released them to continue treatment at home even
though they hadn't fully recovered. After returning home, they purchased
medicines for quite some time. Some residents organized a variety of
self-treatment methods and confess that their children still suffer from
various ailments today. A frequent complaint is intestinal tract problems.
Adults were treated at home. One the first day, water and Regidron were
distributed, and that was all.
Emma Hayrapetyan says that during the next four days the neighbourhood had
no water supply. When the supply resumed, it ran hot and chalky for 2-3
days. On the fourth day, the water color cleared a bit but it tasted awful
but it was cold.
Yerevan Municipal Prosecutor Hrach Badalyan summarized the police
investigation thusly: `At the intersection of 11th and 9th Streets in
Nubarashen it was found that the water pipeline was damaged and that there
had been a water leakage for about one year. As a result the ground was
always wet. In other words, discovering the water leak, fixing the problem
and preventing the mass sickness of residents weren't particularly
complicated.'
The six month preliminary investigation by the police found that: `The
cause of the mass sickness of Nubarashen residents was the infiltration of
sewage waste infectious agents into the human organism transported via
the drinking water. Specialists have concluded that over time that sewage
flows and the infectious agents at the intersection got into the potable
water distribution pipe due to a lack of pressure, thus causing residents
to seek hospital care with severe intestinal infections.'
In its decision to drop the case, the pre-investigation examining body
touched up the guilty individuals and concluded that, `no one in the
company was tasked with the responsibility of carrying our periodic testing
or inspection and that there was no in-company procedure to expose
accidents or water seepage.' No evaluation of guilt was assigned to the
water supply company even though immediately after the warning of the
incident had been sounded the State Prosecutor General, in an advisory
session, had called for the timely expose of the `guilty individuals and
organizations'.
Yerevan Water was the water supply company for the Nubarashen
11thneighbourhood and the villages of Nor Kharberd and Ayntap as of
May 30,
2006. Regarding what took place in the villages, company General Manager
Gor Grigoryan noted that both *Yerevan Djur* and Hayjrmoughkoyughi
(Armenian Water and Sewage) were both supplying water to the villages in
question, but that instances of poisoning didn't fall within their
parameters. `They are private water pipes and neither of us operates them,'
he said.
In the management contract signed between the Republic of Armenia and the
French company Veolia Water, it states that the operator must respond on an
operational basis to all received petitions and complaints, and that fines
will be levied for not doing so within the prescribed average deadline.
Gagik Margaryan, Director of *Yerevan Djur*'s Customer Relations Division,
says that due to modern technologies installed in the 1-85 service more
than 1.5 years ago, the company is immediately informed of customer
warnings.
`Once the warning enters the system, all appropriate division heads see
it
at the same time. The information is passed along to the regional engineer
who organizes the work to be carried out,' says Margaryan.
*Yerevan Djur General Manager Gor Grigoryan*
Working in such operational conditions, it remains unanswered why the
company wasn't able to prevent the three day breakdown in Nubarashen,
especially when the company director stated that `we were informed about
the incident within minutes'. More correctly, General Manager Gor Grigoryan
revealed that it wasn't possible to pinpoint the location of the accident
since, `We have a tortured and sick system where individuals connect water
pipes willy-nilly to the system and no one knows anything about it.' He
didn't rule out that such cases could happen again and noted, `We are not
insured given the conditions of today's water supply system. Today, there
are more holes than metal in the pipes. It's simply that the continuity of
the water supply has decreased the risk factor.'
As of January 1, 2010, the Commercial Authority (headed by Gagik Margaryan
at the time) of *Yerevan Djur* was dealing with customer complaints. In the
fourth year of the implementation of the contract the Danish company Rambol
conducted a technical, operational, service and management audit of *Yerevan
Djur* for 2009-2010. From an organization stance, according to the audit, a
solution to the problem had been given. `Warnings received by residents or
organization regarding water supply accidents, schedule violations,
sewage as well as courtyard pump breakdowns will be received by the `1-85
Call Center' customer hotline.'
The audit also says: `There are frequent complaints that it is hard to
contact the 1-85 Call Center. The public perception is that service level
of the lessee is severely lacking when it comes to quickly fixing
breakdowns. Even though the response time to customer petitions did not
exceed accepted norms, what was considered unsatisfactory is that the
average response time in the fourth year doubled in comparison to the third
year. *Yerevan Djur* must explain why it took repair crews twice as long to
fix breakdowns in the fourth year as opposed to the third.'
The Ministry of Health's website (June 3, 2011), after residents were
hospitalized, states that the Southern Branch of *Yerevan Djur* and Yerevan
Municipality specialists have already repaired the accident. People in the
know claim that the company would only initiate repair work when there was
a hue and cry raised; thus it's no wonder that the accident here was fixed
after people started showing up in hospital wards.
In a letter to Serzh Denis Popof, former General Manager of *Yerevan Djur*,
the heads of the company's branches and two division chiefs complained
about obstacles arising in organizing work activities and called on him to
take drastic measures to remedy the problem.
They wrote: `We appreciate the investment made in equipment, but we have
claimed and claim now that the main investment must be directed to changing
broken down water pipes and non-working valves. This isn't happening in
practice. Pipe insulation work has stopped and we are essentially wearing
down and already dilapidated system. In these conditions, the branch
offices, at tremendous effort, can just about manage to repair all the
breakdowns. Furthermore, the branches are sometimes instructed to change
100-400 meters of water pipe. This is unacceptable and a major violation of
branch functions...'
*`Technical management' section of contract*
Point 8
`locating and monitoring of external seepage; taking measures to prevent
and/or decrease such losses'
Point 9
Planning of greater protection and repair projects, including restoration
and repair of equipment, that are incorporated in the business plans and
the projects for greater protection and repair.
Point 14
Preservation of underground pipes that assist in drainage of surface water,
since these pipes are still joined to the sewage system.
Despite the fact that the company failed to carry out its responsibilities,
the General Prosecutor also did not see a *corpus delicti* (Latin: "body of
crime") in the act of the company's general manager. The prosecutor, as
mediator, merely urged the Yerevan mayor to look into the water seepage
issue and come up with alternative ways to expose hidden breakdowns, adding
that the measures of *Yerevan Djur* were inadequate.
In a letter to the Yerevan mayor, we asked to be informed as to the status
of the general prosecutor's mediation.
`In order to increase the effectiveness of the process, the company has
acquired new and more sensitive equipment to locate seepages and pressure
fluctuations. The problem is more complicated in the sewage system, where
the absence of pressure prohibits the application of such measures. In this
regard, studies are being conducted and a specific approach will be crafted
designed to provide modern solutions,' stated K. Ghazaryan, acting head of
the Yerevan Municipality's Department of Communal Services.
*Yerevan Djur* General Manager Gor Grigoryan, replying to the same issue,
states, `These are all modern, nevertheless they cannot insure a 100%
result. The only alternative is to change the water network.'
According to the director, given the state of the network today, when it is
impossible to reveal who has installed pipes and where, they will not be
able to prevent such cases. In order to have new pipes will require great
expenditures. Costs factored into water utility rates only cover the repair
of the most damaged sections located. The director says that the
government must provide a solution to this issue by way of credits and that
there had previously been an agreement for credit programs.
The general manager stated that the company had fulfilled all its
obligations, including the investment portion, and that he and Gagik
Margaryan regarded all complaints about the company's activities and
shortcomings as `absurd' chatter.
(To be continued)
(*Scoop*, a Danish-based network for investigative journalists, assisted in
the preparation of this investigative article)
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress