Noting that many rivers in Armenia are being degraded by an overabundance of hydro-power plants, Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan instructed the Nature Protection and Energy/Natural Resources Ministers to draft proposals within the next two weeks regarding the granting of water usage permits and to present them to the National Water Council.

“We already face possible environmental problems on those rivers where there are more hydro power plants than originally planned for or necessary,” Prime Minister Karapetyan told a government cabinet session today.

Karapetyan said that solutions existed and expected the ministries to approach the issue on terms of energy security.

“We have river systems where small hydro plants are too closely clustered,” Karapetyan noted, adding that restrictions on permits would be part of the solution.