The decision to increase the water release from Lake Sevan to 270 mln cu m is a shady transaction, Head of the Green Union of Armenia Hakob Sanasaryan has told ArmInfo.
To remind, on 29 April the Parliament amended the Law "On approval of the annual complex action plan on restoration, maintenance, reproduction and exploitation of the ecosystem of Lake Sevan" in the first reading. According to the amendments, the maximum water release from the Sevan shall be increased from 170 mln cu m to 240 mln cu m for a year.
Head of EcoLur NGO Inga Zarafyan has told ArmInfo that it has recently become known to the environmentalists that after the first reading the Government submitted a new document to the Parliament, which said that the maximum water release shall be increased to 270 mln cu m. The Parliament approved these amendments. So, the decision making process was not transparent, because the public was not even informed of the plans to increase the release to 270 mln cu m.
Sanasaryan thinks that the given situation demonstrates certain people's intention to prevent the water level rise in order to protect their business interests. The expert says that usually the water is released from the Lake for irrigation purposes on 11-20 June. The current year cannot be called rainless (except for the past 10-15 hot days). Meanwhile, by mid June the water release from the Sevan totaled over 140 mln cu m already", he says.
He thinks that such a policy will slowdown the self-purification of Lake Sevan and may have a negative effect on the ichthyofauna.