Government Evaluates Disaster Damage for 3 Months, Yet Results Remain Unseen: 'Journalist'

The government approved the allocation of 1 million drams in assistance to 4 families who suffered casualties due to floods in the Lori and Tavush regions during the meeting on June 4. Affected families in the Alaverdi community and the Ayrium village of the Noyemberyan community will receive 60,000 drams per family member. This was reported by the 'Journalist' newspaper.

In the Lori region, families from the communities of Tumanyan, Pambak, Tashir, Stepanavan, and Gyulagarak, along with families from the villages of Arjisi, Bagratashen, Debedavan, Hakhtanak, and Ptghavan in the Noyemberyan community of Tavush, as well as those in Dilijan and Ijevan, are set to receive 40,000 drams per family member. It was announced that these assistance funds will also be disbursed from donations provided by donor organizations.

The 'Journalist' newspaper learned from the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs that transfers have not yet been made, but they will occur in the upcoming week. The deadline for submitting applications is August 31. There are 250 beneficiary families, totaling 850 individuals, and 80% of applications have been received.

Interestingly, some families, in addition to material damages, have also lost their homes and roofs. For almost three months, the government, along with the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures and the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, has been assessing the damages from the disaster, yet the results remain invisible. Infrastructure and homes in the Lori and Tavush regions have been devastated by water, and the goods inside buildings have become unusable. However, government representatives are offering symbolic sums of 40 or 60 thousand drams to the affected residents, which do not even cover 25% of the incurred damages.

Instead of going house to house to register the properties of the affected, the government is asking for applications. The Armenian Unified Information Center, which had been in intensive live broadcasts from the disaster zone, has had no updates on their Facebook page since July 10. The last post from July 10 concerns housing support programs for forcibly displaced individuals from Nagorno-Karabakh.

There are bridges in the Lori and Tavush regions that have been constructed multiple times after river floods for temporary use; once they are stopped, they simply collapse. There are communities where the bridges connecting them to the city are not only partly dilapidated but also dangerous to cross even on foot. Does Armenia have an additional budget for constructing the same bridge multiple times only to 'hand it over to the water'?

To say that this is government indifference would mean saying nothing at all.