Armenia: Yerevan Facing Potential Environmental Crisis This Spring – Experts
The spring thaw may seem a long way away at this point, but when it comes, it could cause an environmental crisis at a Soviet-era toxic waste dump outside Yerevan, some Armenian activists are warning.
The landfill, which was breached last year for reasons that remain unclear, is situated in an area prone to landslides, and the terrain around it could shift once the snow melts, environmentalists say. Officials maintain that they have a clean-up plan in place, but activists argue that the government must act more quickly.
Located about 12 kilometers south of downtown Yerevan, in the district of Nubarashen, the site contains nearly 600 tons of roughly 50 types of hazardous, toxic chemicals, including DDT. Roughly 130 meters by 30 meters in size, the landfill, simply known as “Nubarashen,” was opened in the 1980s with the burial of pesticides from collective farms.
Last March, heavy machinery was used to remove the site’s top layer. The reasons for the removal remain unclear. Tracks left at the site indicated what had happened, but the responsible parties have not been identified.
A Danish pesticide specialist, International HCH & Pesticides Association Director John Vijgen, visited Nubarashen after the removal of the landfill’s top layer. He told EurasiaNet.org that “pure pesticides waste, drums, bottles, bags were scattered all over the place,” adding that he was “shocked” by the sight.
Various international organizations, ranging from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to the United Nations, have been busy of late trying to assess the scope of the problem at Nubarashen.
Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian, who visited the site last July, acknowledged that the government was alarmed by the situation and pledged to “solve this problem once and for all” so that “everyone can be sure there is no threat to the environment.” The government allocated 32 million drams (about $88,000) to rebury the pesticides, cover the landfill with a waterproof layer, encircle the area with barbed wire and post warning notices.
Yet some local environmentalists argue that these precautions are not sufficient. The landfill, situated a few kilometers from the villages of Mushavan and Jrashen, is located in an area prone to landslides, meaning that when the spring thaws begin, the threat to the surrounding land and population will increase, they argue.
“They have covered the landfill with a thick layer of soil, hoping the pesticides will not move, but the heavy weight made the cracks on the sides even bigger and wider, and since the landfill is located in a landslide area, it creeps forward, ” said Lilik Simonian, an ecologist at Armenian Women for Health and a Healthy Environment, a Yerevan non-governmental organization. The group has been pushing for a thorough clean-up at Nubarashen for the past several years.
Monitoring done under the auspices of the Ministry of Emergency Situations reported in early November the presence of cracks 30 to 35 centimeters wide in the landfill’s sides.
“The cracks will get increasingly bigger [as] it goes on creeping forward, and the situation may become simply disastrous in winter with the thaw,” Simonian said.
Environmentalist Inga Zarafian, chairperson of the Ecolur non-governmental organization, noted that if the pesticides were not properly disposed of immediately, they could ultimately seep into water channels linked to Yerevan. “Each day of delay increases the hazards,” she said.
Gohar Ghazinian, National Program Officer for Environmental Activities at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Yerevan office, agreed that there are grounds to be concerned. “Permanent monitoring and analyses are needed to make sure [that everything’s OK],” Ghazinian said. “We can have a clear picture after a detailed examination of this area.” The OSCE will carry out an assessment about the best ways to handle the remaining waste, she added.
On December 14, the National Security Council asserted that Armenia will work with the Polish company Ecotech, which handles processing toxic chemicals and pesticides, to solve the problem of the Nubarashen landfill, but did not provide details.
That leaves environmentalists pessimistic. For years, they argue, the government has known about Nubarashen, but only took action when the risk of a disaster rose to a troubling level. “Measures must be taken urgently; otherwise, we’ll face an extremely difficult situation,” commented Simonian.
Marianna Grigoryan is a freelance reporter in Yerevan and the editor of MediaLab.am, a news website that receives funding from the Open Society Assistance Foundation – Armenia. Anahit Hayrapetyan is a freelance photojournalist also based in Yerevan.
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