Experts: Hydropower Plants Endanger The Ecosystem

EXPERTS: HYDROPOWER PLANTS ENDANGER THE ECOSYSTEM

arminfo
Monday, June 25, 23:20

On June 25 the Aarhus Center of Yerevan hosted discussions on the
problems of small hydropower plants (HPPs) in Armenia. Environmental
NGOs took part in the discussions.

Environmentalist Knarik Hovhannisyan told ArmInfo that the small HPPs
seriously endanger the ecosystem. She stressed that today the
hydropower engineers do not take into account the necessity to
preserve the biodiversity in the river. In addition, in case several
HPPs are built on one river, the ecosystem of the river is disturbed.

“The river does not manage to restore the state, to which the plant
community, micro- and macroorganisms are accustomed to”, Hovhannisyan
stressed.

In particular, the ichthyofauna suffers from the operation of the
small HPPs. The expert also doubts that all the up-to-date HPPs have
fish-passes allowing the fish to pass to the spawning places. In
addition, in Armenia the land categories are being changed for both
construction of HPPs and any other fields, including the ore-mining
industry. During the March 1 session of the Government, the categories
of 0.425 ha of lands in Lichk community and 0.15 ha of the forest
resources in Syunik region have been changed for construction of two
small HPPs. Earlier EcoLur NGO reported that this area was included in
Arevik national park.

In the meantime, the small HPPs, as power assets, do not endanger the
environment: they do not pollute the environment or worsen the quality
of the water. “The problem is that the water resources are used
intensively and the environmental factors are not taken into account”,
the expert stressed.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress