Sipanik Family of Nine Left Homeless and Ill Due to Rising Underground Water For the past few days, the nine meber family of Nina Babakhanyan, a resident of the Sipanik village in Ararat Marz, hasn't been able to live in their own house. The reason is that underground waters have been flooding tha basements and fields of many local homes. Ten days ago, the waters sudeenly rose and engulfed the small one-story Babakhanyan house. The small yard outside has been turned into a pond. The kids and adults have been sloshing around in the water that fills the house for a couple of days now. Narineh Sargsyan, grandma Nina's daughter, says that the family has been copingwith living with the water for the past five years, but that this year, with the recent heavy rains, the water level has risen considerably. The walls have even strated to crumble due to the rising waters. It is only by a stroke of luck that nine month old Lilit wasn't under one the walls when it gave way. Living in the house is grandma Nina, who is bed-ridden, her two daughters and five adolescent grandchildren. The eldest is serving in the army. Whenever the waters start to rise, the kids are taken to stay with relatives in Yerevan. They have no relations in the village. But since they have been struggling with the water for the past five years, Narineh says that tey've had enough with the "wandering life of nomads" and have decided to stay and cope with the flood. The family ghas even decided to stay put in the house that is crumbling all around them. They have nowhere else to go. But emergency service units have arrived and removed them from the house. A few days later the Ararat Regional Administration allocated the family two "wagon-huts" for them to stay in. The family is living in these temporary structures now but the roofs leak. There wan't a dry patch of land belonging to the family on which to place the huts. They are placed on stones in the muddy field. Due to the weight of the huts, the stones have moved. The huts are now on a slight slant. Every two days new stones are placed underneath, just so the huts don't topple over. All the family's furniture has remained in the water logged house. They are afraid the weight would be too much to bear. "We were so disappointed that the emergency workers wanted to remove us. As you can see our social conditions are pretty bad. We have grown tired of living like this. We decided to stay behind in the house and drop dead. Westayed there for 5-6 days in the water until the Regional Administration allocated these huts," recounted Narineh. When we visited the family, Karineh, Narineh's sister, wasn't at home. Her two kids, Lilit and Felix, were quietly sitting next to their grandmother. Seeing me, Lilit broke into tears and approached. "I dream of having a house. Please give us a house," said the nine year-old. The children are always getting sick from the dampness. Grandma Nina has also been stricken and is now confined to her bed with inflamed lungs. Lilit suffers from chronic bronchitis and her brother has severe kidney problems. Narineh is also suffering from diabetes. Her kids are older and attend 6th, 7th and 8th grade classes. They can cope better than her sister's children who fall sick easily. We got on the phone and spoke with their family doctor Naira Vardazaryan. It was difficult getting her to talk about the children's medical condition. She said she had an urgent call to attend to. Ernest Baloyan, the director of the out-patient clinic, picked up her cell phone to speak to us. In the background we could hear the doctor say, "Tell that reporter not to bother me anymore with his phone calls.." Director Baloyan wasn't all that pleased that we called either. "You are writing abouth their socio-economic plight. But I don't understand what the children's health has to do with it. Their problem is that the wal in the house has crashed down," he said. "But isn't it true that their poor living standards have something to do with their illnesses?" I replied. Mr. Baloyan rtesponded, "Until the time that the family's social conditions don't improve, the kids will always be sick. Even if they are cured, they will fall sick again due to the dampness. I have been to their house and I can tell you it's no place to live. A person requires normal living conditions. We can only monitor the situation and offer some prevetative care, nothing more," Mr. Baloyan said. Even though the doctors weren't that pleasant with us, Narineh was quite satisfied with their work, especially since tey gave the chidren free medicine. Grandma Nina's family once lived in Yerevan. They owned an apartment which they had to sell for financial reasons. They then moved to Sipanik. "We had hopes of moving to the village, and living by working the land. When we purchased the land, there was no problem with the water. A few years later, the waters started to rise to the surface," she recounted. The only income the family has is the 48,000 AMD in benefits recived by the two sisters and the 15,000 pension of the grandma. No one in the family works. Narineh says that last year, when her father died from lung disease, the family only had twenty AMD to their name. The bofy remained in the house. They had no money for a burial. They called an ambulance to take the body to be cremated but they wanted money as well. "The village municipality took the body and buried it," says Narineh, adding that the entire village knows the family is in dire straits and that there are days when they go without eating. "My son is the only bread-winner and he's in the army now," she said. "We have no field to cultivate and the land around the house is under water. If we had some land, me and the kids would get to work. At least it would be a start. But we don't even have that," Narineh said. They have about 1,000 square meters around the house but it is so water-logged that it is turning into a swamp with reeds growing. Grandma Nina told us that some specialists came from the Regional Administration and surveyed the land, concluding it wouldn't be fit for agriculture for some time to come. "Even the Ararat Regional Governor knows of our plight. About two weeks ago we received 20,000 AMD in assistance and these huts. The village mayor has also greatly assisted. But I can't be running to the mayor for every problem and say my kids are hungry por some such thing. It's become something of a self pride issue. For my children, however, I have put such feelings aside. With my face blackened, I have gone from door to door asking for some bread so that my kids have a bit to eat. Right now, getting them something to eat is my daily concern," says Narineh. Sipanik Mayor Hayk Badalyan agrred that the rising underground water was a serious issue and that he has no idea how it might be solved.