Lake Sevan's shallow waters are full of trash, rivers have become "sewers" - alarms scientist

YEREVAN, JULY 30, ARMENPRESS. A calcination process is currently happening in Lake Sevan, according to scientist Evelina Ghukasyan, the Director of the Hydroecology and IchthyologyInstitute of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia.

She said the process isn’t “that much of dangerous”, since it contributes to increase of light transparency given the fact that calcium residues drag “numerous materials in the water” into the depth.

“However, anaerobic conditions are created in the bottom. Decaying flora remnants require high amounts of oxygen to be decomposed,” Ghukasyan said.

The scientist said the shallow waters and areas near the shores of the lake are grossly littered with various household waste materials.

“You can come across anything at the bottom of the lake. Even scientific research is complicated by the nets and traps that can be found at the bottom, because when we lower a device there it gets stuck in some [fish] trap. We also cannot approach the shores by boats to conduct research because the entire shore is full of fishing nets and traps, the majority of which have been left unattended by fishermen,” she said, adding that although these nets aren’t used, fish continue getting trapped and killed in them.

Ghukasyan says the waste management process is organized very poorly in the Gegharkunik Province – where the lake is located – as well aselsewherein the country. The scientist says the country’s rivers have “become not just sewers, but surface currents carrying garbage”, while these rivers are the birthplace of endemic fish.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan