WATER COMMITTEE: RAISING DISCHARGED VOLUME NOT TO LEAD TO REDUCTION IN WATER LEVEL IN SEVAN LAKE OF ARMENIA
ARKA
Aug 14, 2008
YEREVAN, August 14. /ARKA/. The planned increase in discharge of water
from Sevan Lake up to 360mln cubic meters will not bring to reduction
in the water level in the lake, said the Head of Finance and Economy
Department of Armenia’s State Water Committee Mher Mkrtumyan.
The current water level is 1,899.20 meters in Sevan, which is by 40
centimeters more than on January 1 2008 and by 25 centimeters higher
than the level recorded in the same period of last year (1,898.95cm),
Mkrtumyan said at the discussion on rehabilitation of Sevan Lake
ecosystem. The discussion was held by the Armenian Center for National
and International Studies.
Mkrtumyan stressed the importance of public discussions on raising the
discharge of water from Sevan Lake and involvement of ecologists in
the discussions. The matter is also to be discussed by the Armenian
Parliament on August 19. Discharge is to be increased only for
irrigation purposes, Mkrtumyan said.
Under the current law, release volume is set at 240mln cubic meters,
but this has never been the case: the release volume reached 150mnl
cubic meters at most, Mkrtumyan said. The government decided to
increase the discharge due to early start of irrigation season and
extremely hot spring. Increasing the drawoff is also connected with
insufficient water resources of Aparan and Azat reservoirs.
Another reason is the insufficient flow of Hrazdan River (112mln cubic
meters this year as compared with the usual flow of over 160mln cubic
meters), Mkrtumyan said.
As a result, according to Mkrtumyan, water deficit during the 2008
irrigation season will make up 15% or 70mln cubic meters.
Mkrtumyan stressed that currently 213mln cubic meters have already
been taken from Sevan with no reduction of water level in the lake
recorded.