Environmentalists are concerned over a new Bill on environment impact assessment that gives new privileges to small HPPs, Head of EcoLur NGO Inga Zarafyan told ArmInfo.
She said that the Bill divides the projects that are subject to the environment impact assessment into three categories depending on the environment impact level (the highest impact - A category - the lowest - C). Zarafyan said that small HPPs have been transferred from the category B (medium impact) to the category C (low impact), which means that relevant documents on the HPP projects will be considered just formally.
At present, there are 144 small HPPs in Armenia and 80 licenses have been issued for construction. The expert claims that the construction of small HPPs already has many privileges. High tariffs and the 15-year license are now replenished with the government's decision to assess the environmental flow of the companies on the basis of the indicators of the years and days with the lowest precipitations. "For instance, the environmental flow for the River of Daranak is assessed at 0.007 cu m /sec, which is some 5 liters," Zarafyan said.
Mass protest actions were organized against construction of small HPPs in the country. The Ministry of Nature Protection refused from construction of the HPP on the River of Trchkan under public pressure. Last year the residents some villages in Tavush also protested against construction of Khachaghbyur-2 HPP on the River of Agstev and achieved revision of the project.