A Glass of Lake Sevan Water
My anger over the growing problems of Armenia’s most important natural resource, Lake Sevan, is hitting a boiling point. I am always overjoyed when I finish my climb from either the Dillijan Valley or the Ararat Valley and I am met with the beauty of Lake Sevan. However, her beauty is only skin deep.
To go back in history a bit, during the Soviet Era, Lake Sevan was abused. The Soviet Engineers drained about 25 meters of water from the Lake taking it to its current level today. It is hard to put together the correct timeline of events and I am not sure I trust the history books. I have heard different stories from the various people in different parts of Gegharkunik. On top of the draining of the Lake, there was the poising of it with acid from the industry surrounding it. There are stories of a few fish kills that were obviously signs of the damaged environment. In addition, Sevan Whitefish (aka sig) was introduced by the Soviets. It is a quick growing fish as compared to ishkhan and the planners obviously thought it would be more utilitarian.
Now, Lake Sevan is fighting for its life. The communities of Gegharkunik are doing all they can to ensure her death. Every tributary I visit in Gegharkunik is full of trash. As best I can figure, the bottom of Lake Sevan must be full of hundreds of tons of plastic bottles. For example, the area of the Gavarget (Gavar River) that flows through Noratus is a trash dump. It truly breaks my heart.
I was standing on the banks of Sevan recently with an Armenian Diaspora who was born in Gegharkunik but lives in Europe. He took out a cup and stooped down to fill it. I asked him what he was doing and he said, “I am going to drink the cleanest water in the world, the water of Sevan!” I asked him to reconsider his decision. He was confused and pressed me as to why. I told him, “I will show you a few things and after that, if you wish, you can still drink the water.” We got in the car and took a tour looking for the small rivers that filter into the Lake from the surrounding mountains. Each small river had garbage and other pollution that was on the banks and in the water. The film that could be found in slow moving water was obviously not natural.
The thing that changed my friends mind was when he realized there is no sewage treatment facility for the Gegharkunik communities. He saw pipes emptying sewage water directly into the water ways that flow to Lake Sevan. He turned to me with tears in his eyes and said, “I understand why you stopped me.”
Currently, there are people rushing to build hotels and restaurants on the shores of Lake Sevan. Tourism is vital to keep Lake Sevan alive yet the act of building tourism infrastructure is leading to destruction of what people wish to see. Case in point is a ranking member of the security service who is building a scare of a building that will be a restaurant and he has already completed a boat shed just south of the Town of Sevan. Without controls on this development, Armenia will be left with nothing that tourists want to see in the Lake region.
Of course, I could continue and document the various issues of corruption of funds meant to improve Lake Sevan as well as discuss the over fishing that will most likely kill the fishery this year, but that seems like I would be beating a dead horse. I hope the international organizations that pledge to help Armenia will put the appropriate pressure on the country’s leadership to improve Lake Sevan and preserve it for the future.
A while back I e-mailed a friend saying, “I am so conflicted about this country — I could easily make a list of 50 things I love about Armenia, and 50 things I hate.”
He asked me what would be on top of the “things I hate” list. I thought for a moment and replied, “Garbage. I know there are worse things, but there’s just something so disgusting about the garbage everywhere.”
So I’m very sympathetic to you and your friend.
I wish I knew what the answer was…
Doug M.
Comment by Doug M. — 1/30/2007 @ 5:33 pm
it seems like garbage has always been in issue for who knows how long in armenia. either in yerevan or by lake sevan i always feel disappointed about this issue. i started to visit armenia in 2002 and it is hard to believe this garbage was a problem during the soviet era…or was it?
Comment by Nareg — 1/31/2007 @ 12:19 am
Sounds like heads need to roll before people wake up to the fact that they are contributing to their own longterm destruction. APATHY IS RAMPANT IN ARMENIA AND THOSE MOTIVATED TO DO SOMETHING FOR THE COLLECTIVE GOOD ARE A TINY MINORITY!!!!!!!!!!!
Comment by arapo — 1/31/2007 @ 5:15 am
To answer Nareg’s question - Not Really. Remember 20 years ago we’re talking about a non-consumer-based society. You didn’t have the paper and plastics,in all its packaging forms, for people to simply toss away after using. Funny story…A few years ago in Yerevan I had rented an apt and not seeing anything resembling a garbage can for the building I had to ask a neighbor or two where they threw their refuse. One told me the place was a 5 minute walk to the neigborhood garbage collection site, but added that they usually discarded their garbage in the street bin.Then too, I saw people just leave their garbage in the hallways!!!!
Comment by arapo — 1/31/2007 @ 7:46 pm
Nareg’s right. During the Soviet times there were no plastic bottles. It was all glass and you could return them for refund. Of course, a lot of people did not do that and would instead throw them away.
Plastic bags were a big deal, too. They did not have the plastic shopping bags. The storage bags were washed and reused.
But littering the environment was a problem then, too. Armenians love having parties in the woods, and after each party they would leave the garbage behind. A lot of it was biodegradable food leftovers but you would have aluminum foil, glass bottles and all other kinds of garbage.
Nowadays littering is more of a problem because it’s a capitalist society and it’s a consumer society. Unfortunately, the people’s ignorance and apathy for their surroundings may have gotten worse. They fail to realize that their environment belongs to them.
Arguing that it is where their children will live is not a very convincing approach. Most of the people would leave Armenia themselves, and wish their kids do so, if they could.
Comment by nazarian — 2/1/2007 @ 6:08 pm