Seasonal Conditions Delay Sevan's Blooming Process: Gayane Shahnazaryan

To our delight, today in Small Sevan we do not have any green areas, and in Large Sevan only a few small areas are green; we hope it will recover on its own. This was stated by Vahe Jilavyan, performing the duties of the Minister of Environment, during a meeting with journalists on July 29.

According to him, the government has issued very strict directives to take all necessary measures and present plans on what needs to be done so that next year we either have no green areas or very few. He noted, “This is particularly related to the cleaning of forested areas that have already been submerged, as well as the implementation of mechanisms for cleaning wastewater flowing into Sevan. In 2019, around 100 hectares of forested area were cleaned in the Vardenis section. This year, the cleaning continues in the same area. Currently, 50 hectares have already been cleaned,” he said.

In turn, Gayane Shahnazaryan, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Environment’s Environmental Monitoring and Information Center, mentioned, “The blooming processes of Sevan, which started in previous years in June, began this year on July 15. Depending on the weather, the blooming process started late and will end early. We have a poor ecological situation in Sevan; the oxygen levels are low, but the quantity of nutrients is sufficient for continuous blooming processes to occur. Transparency is up to 4 meters. All these characteristics indicate that there is a sufficient amount of nutrients in the lake. This means that the state of the lake is not too bad, but it is not good either.”

It was also noted that the agenda includes the dismantling of coastal buildings, cleaning of coastal forested areas, and the establishment of wastewater treatment plants flowing into the lake. A grant of 5 million euros is expected from the EU for these purposes. Within the framework of this 5 million euro grant, the priority will be the installation of treatment plants and the process of cleaning wastewater from local communities.

“Within the scope of the grant, three specific projects are being discussed. One of them is the possible construction of a wastewater treatment plant from communities. The second is a program aimed at the reclamation of waste, and the third is the cleaning of rivers from household waste,” she said.