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MP Samvel Aleksanyan Expands Fish Farm Operation Despite Government Warnings

Kristine Aghalaryan
Grisha Balasanyan 

It appears that Armenia’s Ministry of the Environment has no idea how many fish farm operations in the Ararat Valley are breaking the law when it comes to the number of underground water wells actually being operated.

Or else, maybe the Ministry does know but figures it can’t do much to shut down the illegal wells given that many of the fish farms are operated by powerful and influential Armenian politicians.

Here’s a case in point.

In 2010, when we visited the fish farm owned by Armenian MP Samvel Aleksanyan in the Ararat village of Sipanik, the manager told us that operation was drawing water from 6-7 bore holes.

When we asked the Ministry of the Environment to verify this data, they responded that according to their information Aleksanyan’s Sipanik fish farm only had official permission for one. It actually says so on the Ministry’s web site.

To make matters worse, the Ministry claims that it has issued no new permits for bore holes in the Ararat Valley since 2012.

Our recent visits to local fish farms, however, shows that despite the Ministry’s claims to the contrary, operators are flouting the law left and right. They are expanding their operations and drawing more than the permissible water amounts to sustain the larger farms.

MP Samvel Aleksanyan seems unperturbed by the Ministry’s stated limits. He’s a politician whose real source of influence stems from his import monopolies. These and his fish farming operation all are managed under the name of his Aleks Grig conglomerate.

According to Movses Arakelyan, who manages Aleksanyan’s Sipanik fish farm, the number of water bore holes has risen to ten, soiling out 960 liters of water per second. Even Arakelyan confesses that underground water reserves are dropping as a result of such profligate usage.

Decreasing underground water levels in the Ararat Valley is an issue periodically raised in the halls of government, but a long-term solution is nowhere in evidence.

Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan’s repeated calls for a more rational water usage policy has seemingly fallen on deaf ears. But a large part of the blame lies with Sargsyan himself – he fails to seriously follow-up on his pronouncements, leaving everything to chance and to underlings that fail to execute his instructions.

PM Sargsyan made his latest pronouncement on the matter at a July 10 cabinet session. He described the overall water usage situation in the Ararat Valley as an “impending calamity”.

But the oligarchs who own fish farms seem unconcerned. They continue to draw huge amounts of water from underground aquifers to sustain their businesses. Many avoid paying the prescribed water taxes by a number of devious methods.

Readers will be surprised to learn that Aleksanyan’s fish farm hasn’t even installed a water meter. The business pays taxes based on water consumption rates as estimated by a panel of experts. Every quarter, the business pays 500,000 AMD ($1,200) for all the water it uses.

Fish farm manager Movses Arakelyan says the business has the potential to grow but that decreasing water levels is the problem. He says the only solution is to introduce a water recirculation system like they use in Europe, but that it’s expensive. The cost of such a system, according to Arakelyan, would also drive up the retail price of fish.

Last year, MP Aleksanyan sold 247 tons of fish farmed at his Sipanik operation in his Yerevan City chain of supermarkets.

Manager Arakelyan says that while the supermarket chain is growing, fish sales are down by 30-40%. He argues that continued emigration from Armenia means less retail consumers.

The retail price of fish has also dropped from an average of 1,700-2,000 AMD per kilo three years ago to the current 1,500. 

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Gegham
Առաջ Սամվել Ալեքսանյանի անօրինականությունների մասին մասին կարդալուց զարմանում էի որ նա ՀՀ օրենքներից վեր է իրեն դասում,հիմա հիանում եմ որ նա ավելի շուտ է հասկացել որ Հայաստանում պետք է թքած ունենաս օրենքների վրա և անես այն ինչ մտքովդ անցնում է,իսկ խնդիր առաջանալու դեպքում բիրիքով առնում է բոլորին որ էժան նստի,,

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