After Irrigating Orchards with Debed River Water, Trees Are Drying Up: Gardeners Complain, Journalist Voskay Sarghsyan

Journalist Voskay Sarghsyan has provided details about the current situation. “For the past 14 years, the Debed River has periodically turned gray. Gardeners are complaining that after irrigating with the river’s water, which is saturated with heavy metals, the peach trees are drying up. In previous years, samples have been periodically taken from the Debed and tested in Yerevan.

The Ministry of Environment has carried out monitoring regarding discharges into the river from factories located along the Debed River. The river is polluted due to discharges from the Akhtala ore processing plant, the Teghut mine, the Armanis gold mine, and previously from the Alaverdi copper smelting plant. The assault of heavy metals on the river continues. This dangerous water is used to irrigate orchards in the villages of Shnoj, Chochkan, Ayrum, and 8 villages of the large community of Noyemberyan in the Tumanyan region.

The Noyemberyan sun-drenched peaches grown with Debed water are laden with heavy metals. On one hand, the state encourages the establishment of orchards in the Debed valley; on the other hand, it fails to take measures to eliminate the sources of pollution in the Debed River. A few years ago, a resident of Bagratashen sent fish caught from the Debed River as a gift to his compatriot living in Russia. The recipient took the fish to a laboratory, and the conclusion was that the fish was saturated with heavy metals and unfit for consumption, posing a health risk.”