Ararat Underground Aquifer Will Dry Up in 5-10 Years at Current Rate, Deputy Minister Says

If no effective measures are taken, Armenia will lose its purest and safest drinking water reserves, as well as one of its most vital and rapidly growing sectors, aquaculture. This was stated by Gayane Gabrielyan, Deputy Minister of Environment, in an interview with Sputnik Armenia.

"The Ararat Aquifer is a basin located under the Ararat Plain, containing 3.6 billion cubic meters of water. According to official data, we currently consume 1.6 billion cubic meters of water annually, but the aquifer can only replenish 1.1 billion cubic meters each year," Gabrielyan explained with numerical data.

In other words, each year, 0.5 billion cubic meters of water drawn from the Ararat basin is no longer replenished, indicating that Armenia has only 7-8 years left until it fully consumes the 3.6 billion cubic meters.

For comparison, the largest freshwater reserve in Armenia, Lake Sevan, holds 32.5 billion cubic meters, making the Ararat underground "lake" only one-tenth the size of Sevan, but qualitatively superior.

"We are currently utilizing the world's most protected, qualitatively pure, safest, and most strategic water for some purpose. I don’t want to imply that the Ministry of Environment is against aquaculture, but I just want us to consider whether this is the water that should be used for such purposes," Gabrielyan remarked.

According to her, the greatest threat to this irreplaceable water resource comes from deep-well drilling present in the Ararat Plain. Gabrielyan noted that there are wells in the Ararat Plain that go down to 365 meters deep, while the water layer requiring special state protection begins below 20 meters. Water above this level is groundwater and drainage water, which can be freely used for irrigation and other purposes.

For more details, visit the website.