14:00, 5 September 2009

Ecologists: building small HPPs in Armenia harms the environment

Aram Gabrielyan, head of the Environment Department of the Ministry for Nature Protection of Armenia, said that construction of small Hydroelectric Power Plants (HPPs) breaks the ecological balance and results in appearance of problems in the environment.

He has noted that small HPPs, and Armenia now has about 60 of them, are breaking the water and temperature regimes of rivers and hamper fish reproduction, thus result in environmental problems.

According to Karen Manvelyan, Director of the Armenian Branch of the World Wildlife Foundation, the interests of the population are also violated: people are cultivating their land plots and earn their profits, but all this disappears, where an HPP is built.

Meanwhile, Daniel Stepanyan, head of the Division of Renewed Power of the Development Department of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of Armenia, has emphasized that every HPP is commissioned only after holding a corresponding examination.

Author: Lilit Ovanisyan

Source: CK correspondent