Karine Simonyan

In recent years the number of births in Alaverdi has decreased, but birth defects, abnormal pregnancies and infertility are on the rise. Dr. Rosa Machkalyan of the Alaverdi maternity hospital believes that these problems are acute among the residents of Alaverdi and the adjacent communities. They can be ascribed to poor-quality food and a water supply that has not been purified, and to the Alaverdi copper plant, which has been operating for more than five years without the required filters. There were 55 miscarriages registered in the Alaverdi maternity hospital in 1998. Starting from that year, when the Manes & Vallex Company (now ACP) opened, the number of miscarriages has risen noticeably. There were 107 cases in 2001, and 60 in 2002.

The Vanadzor office of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly has conducted a series of hearings on regional ecological problems in Alaverdi. The Mayor of Alaverdi, members of the city council, ACP’s engineer-ecologist, doctors, and independent experts were invited to the most recent discussion. The participants disagreed with the assertion by ACP representative Suren Yeritsyan that the levels of the company’s emissions are not far above permissible limits. According to city council member Emil Aybekyan, data exists that proves that emissions levels are sometimes as much as 60 times higher than the limit. Yeritsyan noted, however, that the data may depend on the direction of the wind and the atmospheric pressure at any given moment.

A center for environmental monitoring was at work in Alaverdi since 1973. Emissions were measured at the center’s observation posts. The center has been closed since January 2003. They lacked the necessary funding, and the standard mode of operation was disrupted; indeed there was little need for it. Only the main polluters of the environment took notice of the findings, because they were to their advantage. Two observation posts are in the wrong places, located in more or less safe areas in the city. One is in the lowest area of Alaverdi, where the quantity of sulphur emission is noticeable only on ultra-humid days, and the other one is in the upland region of Sanahin, which is elevated and away from the main direction of the wind. But there are regions and adjacent residential areas in Alaverdi where the pollution is felt constantly.

In an interview with Ankiun + 3 TV, Minister of Ecology Vardan Aivazyan said that the ecological allocations to the Alaverdi community budget were not being made by the copper-producing APC Company, as required by law, because local government agencies in Alaverdi had not presented the required ecological program to the government. The Alaverdi Mayor’s office responded, challenging the reliability of Aivazyan’s statement. The minister is sticking by his statement, and promises to apologize if proven wrong.

However, the planning department of the Alaverdi mayor’s office had had a project drafted by the end of 2001, and it had been discussed by NGO representatives, political organizations and other interested parties.

The mayor’s office has a letter from the ministry of ecology that it received a year ago in response to the ecological program it had submitted. In the letter, Vardan Aivazyan states that allocations to the community would not be made, as they were not provided for by the State budget. And a letter from the ministry of health says that the ministry has no objection to the program presented. The law regulating these issues that was recently adopted by the National Assembly encouraged Alaverdi residents. And during the recent campaign, candidates for parliament and their proxies missed no opportunity to take credit for the adoption of the law, and to talk about how ready they were to serve Alaverdi through thick and thin.

ACP pays $60,000 a year in ecological dues. Calculations show that the allocation of this money to the community budget will sharply improve conditions and raise living standards in the city. It will make it possible to implement various ecological projects. But the fact is, this requirement of the law is not being met. And people in Alaverdi are not being reimbursed for their ruined health.