Only one out of the 67 communities in the Kotayk Marz has a garbage collection site as prescribed by the environmental laws ion the books

Summing up the activities of 2007 Kovalenko Shahgaldyan, the Regional Governor of Kotayk, stated that his Marz comes in second after Yerevan in the number of incoming tourists. Their numbers peak in the summer when they go to visit Garni and Geghard. Taking the road leading to Garni it’s impossible not to see the numerous plastic bags littering the landscape and the garbage strewn along the way.

According to the Ministry of Nature Protection’s regional office in Kotayk we were informed that the Garni Municipality has been thrice fined for 150,000 drams ($500) for the waste violations. On the day of our visit to Garni heaps of garbage could be seen at the entrance to the village.

The Mayor of Garni, Ashot Vardanyan, was quick to tell us that the village had only been fined the one time explaining that, “They came and looked around. Our village is in better shape than the rest. The problem was that they dumped some construction debris on the road in sacks that I covered over with dirt.” The village of Garni, with a population of some 8,000, doesn’t collect its garbage during the winter months while in the spring the job is done on a weekly basis. Mayor Vardanyan says that garbage receptacles in the village are emptied once a month. The periodic rubbish heaps that spring up on the road from Artashat have also resulted in fines being levied. “We’ve used a tractor to bury the garbage and collected whatever we could. A portion still remains in the spit of land between Hatsavan and Garni. We’ve dug a pit to bury the refuse in.”
During our conversation with Mayor Vardanyan he expressed the opinion that the village had finally solved its garbage problem. The new refuse landfill is on a stretch of unused land away from the road and grazing pastures. While land use applications have been sent to the Regional Governor’s Office and await final approval, the Mayor stated that officials at the Ministry of Nature Protection have verbally given the Garni Community Board the right to decide the most appropriate spot for the new dumpsite. The Board in turn has made its decision. However when we asked the Mayor what studies were conducted before the site decision was made he stared at us in amazement and said that no studies had been conducted given that the site chosen was the only available tract in the village.

In the official Garni budget amounting to some 55 million drams there is not one line noting a separate disbursement for garbage collection. The Mayor declared that 30,000 drams is allotted for the monthly salary of the worker and a yearly amount of 400,000 goes to pay for the fuel expenses of the dump truck.

Garbage Dumps are a Problem in Practically all the Province’s Communities

Sedrak Davtyan, the Mayor of Kaghs, openly confessed that garbage isn’t collected in his community. “The people burn their refuse in their yards.” he stated and added that a truck is brought in when needed. Garbage disposal, especially in rural communities, is far from being implemented today. The issue of rubbish heaps plagues urban areas as well. Every urban community in the province has its specified garbage dumpsite. Only Tzaghkadzor uses the site in Hrazdan. Arsen Petrosyan, the Deputy Director of the Kotayk Regional Environmental Agency, states that none of the communities actually meet the new standards. “If a dump site is to be planned it must undergo a study as to the possible effects it will have on the surrounding environment. These include noxious fumes into the atmosphere, effects to the land and waterways, noise pollution, foul odors, etc.” The only dumpsite in the Province’s 67 communities that has passed inspection and currently operating according to standard is the one managed by the Ankolo Company in Djrvezh. Other rural communities either don’t own their own site or the lands they have set aside for such purposes don’t meet the required standards. In addition, the Province of Kotayk, located nearby to the capital of Yerevan, is conveniently used as a dumpsite by garbage trucks from the city. These trucks would often rather dump their collected trash along nearby roadways than to deliver it to sanctioned collection sites. To solve the problem the Regional Division of the Environmental Protection Department has begun to inspect dump trucks leaving Yerevan for the Kotayk Marz. In this manner some illegal trash haulers have been stopped and fined. Mr. Petrosyan laments that; “We can’t be inspecting trucks all the time. It’s up to the communities themselves to keep watch. They are ultimately responsible for their own environmental well-being. Sadly, we never get any positive cooperation from them in the matter. On the contrary, we have to force them to cooperate.”

The Deputy Director adds that the real problem is the fact that at village collection sites hazardous waste is dumped along side of general household trash. It’s a problem that hasn’t been tackled at the state level. Mr. Petrosyan says that, “The issue of hazardous waste disposal is either being avoided or still in the planning stage.” The entire issue of waste disposal and site management is also sorely inefficient since “you just can’t transport trash somewhere a dump it into a hole”. First, a site must be chosen that conforms to all environmental standards and the trash must be sorted and processed in addition to being filled over properly. Mr. Petrosyan mentioned the plans underway to create garbage-recycling plants noting that the Danish government has expressed an interest in the sector. Waste from poultry plants is also considered hazardous and experiments are underway in the province, with international grant assistance, to process this waste into usable methane gas and fertilizer. The Lusakert poultry plant has been selected as the central collection center for the bird waste.

The Homeless are Doing Their Part as Well

The Deputy Director stated that the sorting of garbage is actually underway. “People are out there collecting plastic bags, glass bottles and other materials. It really makes a dent in the problem.” He is talking about the people who search through garbage cans with the skills of a professional and involuntarily contribute to tackling this environmental issue. Vaghinak Hovhannisyan, the Director of Ankolo, also spoke about the “big job” these people are doing. Plastic bags are a really big problem today and it’s difficult to get a handle on the matter. Every two weeks or so we send out groups of out-of-work people to pick up the bags and it really helps. They run after every car that litters the roads.” The Djrvezh dumpsite opened three years ago. Mr. Hovhannisyan proudly states that, “It’s the only one operating according to the standards set because it passed all necessary inspections.” The total surface of the site is some six hectares and takes in the trash from the village of Djrvezh and the Yerevan communities of Avan and Zeytun. The firm’s Director preferred not to talk about the company’s expenses or the fees it collects from the communities to use the site and only said that Zeytun uses the site for free since it lies within its administrative boundaries.

Mr. Hovhannisyan stated that individual communities do not have the financial resources to have their own sites and added that the major obstacle was the testing process. Ankolo went through a three-year testing phase before operations began. The company collects the waste materials and then buries it in the landfill.

Deputy Director Arsen Petrosyan also believes that it isn’t cost effective for each community to have its own landfill and that the solution is for several communities to share a dumpsite. Vital assistance is also needed from both state and local agencies. The Environmental Department presently undertakes inspection of the issue and has registered violations in practically all communities and has fined the guilty parties. However, even continuous fines haven’t help resolve the problem even if people are told the correct way to manage things. Firstly, either the funds or a proper site is lacking, or what is usually the case, importance is given to the roof or to the roadway or water pipes if the funds are there. However, one cannot avoid the issue of rubbish dumps because, in the evaluation of the experts, they can give rise to “epidemics, the ruination of the land and environmental pollution. It’s a problem that’s being relegated to the back-burner but it’s a ticking time bomb ready to set off an epidemic at any moment and to turn the land barren.” concludes Mr. Petrosyan.

The Trash of Charentsavan is Piling Up in the Neighboring Village

The problem of the garbage dump in Charentsavan also has a long history. Mayor Hakob Shahgaldyan says that they’ve tried different approaches to resolve the matter but none has proved satisfactory. He stated that, “We wanted to officially transfer the dump site to the former mines in operation in Garenis. We had reached an agreement with the Mayor of Garenis to repair the entire stretch of roadway between the two towns and to turn the mines into the new dumpsite for Charentsavan. Tests later showed that the garbage would negatively impact on the flow of potable water that runs under the mines. Thus, we had to halt our plans.” The town’s garbage is now collected next to the cemetery on an approximately 20-hectare piece of land in Alapars. Plastic bags literally cover the village lands. For 40 years Charentsavan has used the land of the neighboring village as a dumpsite for free. Presently, there is no other alternative even though Mayor Shahgaldyan recognizes the urgency of the matter. We should point out that the first outbreak of African swine plague of last year occurred in a farm in close proximity to the dump. Charentsavan currently has no appropriate land on which to build a garbage dump site and the only effective solution would be to jointly build one with a neighboring community. The community’s budget doesn’t allow for funds to be used for land purchases. Mayor Shahgaldyan noted that, “We will again try to work something out with another community. Sooner or later this town must have a proper dumpsite.” Till today the trash dumped in Garenis is burnt. The budget annually allocates a little over one million drams to maintain, enlarge and disinfect the site.”