10:26, 8 December 2018

Authorities promise to give housing to victims of Spitak earthquake

542 families-victims of the 1988 earthquake will receive housing by 2020, the Armenian government has promised.

The earthquake, known as "Spitak earthquake", occurred in Armenia exactly 30 years ago, on December 7, 1988. The highest seismic activity was registered near the village of Nalband, which had gone completely underground. Besides, the disaster also severely damaged 20 cities and more than 340 villages. The town of Spitak was destroyed completely, and Gyumri, Stepanavan, and Vanadzor partially. More than 25,000 people perished in the tragedy; at least 500,000 local residents lost their housing.

The problem of housing in the Spitak earthquake zone is planned to be fully resolved by 2020, Tania Arzumanyan, the head of the Department for Housing Policy and Communal Infrastructure of the City Planning Committee under the Armenian government, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. According to her story, 542 families still need housing. The final data on those in need of housing will appear only in 2019, when the inventory is completed, she has added.

In 2019, it is planned to allocate 560 million drams (about 1.155 million US dollars) from the state budget to solve the housing problems of the earthquake victims, Ms Arzumanyan has stated. In total, in 30 years, the state spent about eight million US dollars under various programmes; and 66,400 families received apartments.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 7, 2018 at 11:15 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Author: Armine Martirosyan, Alvard Grigoryan

Source: CK correspondents