Every year, Alaverdi Mayor Artavazd Varosyan allocates 33 million AMD from the budget to deal with the town’s persistent garbage problem.

 A new landfill, costing around 130 million AMD was built outside the town last year to deal with the growing mounds of refuse.

But spending all this money hasn’t put a dent in the problem. Walk the streets of the town and you’ll come across mounds of garbage all around.

A real unsanitary hot spot is in the Sarahart neighborhood where rusting litter bins are overflowing with uncollected refuse.

Passing cows feed on the refuse as if the site was a drive-in fast food joint.

The Alaverdi Municipality hasn’t been able to resolve the issue of the “free-range” livestock hoofing their way up and down the town’s streets.

Kids attending school in the area have to hold their noses and tiptoe through the stinking mess. Residents of nearby apartments don’t even approach the bins to discard their garbage bags, preferring to throw the bags in the general direction of the bins from a safe distance.

P.S. 12 Principal Gohar Avetyan told Hetq that she has made several calls to the municipality complaing about the mess.

“Workers came and moved the litter bins away from the school and closer to a house where I live. But local residents continued to throw their trash next to the school. They were forced to move the bins back again".

Against this backdrop of garbage and indifference, both public and private, Alaverdi officials still dream of turning their town into a tourist hot spot.

I wish them luck.