Sipanik Village Residents Face Rising Waters and No Toilets Visit certain homes in Sipanik, a village in the Marz (Region) of Ararat, and you won't find a bathroom. Toilet facilities have been engilfed with rising ground water in the area. It has seeped into houses and barns. Many local residents can no longer keep livestock and talk of cultivating the fields is out of the question. The water is turning the land into swamps. The village has always faced this water problem bu, in the past, the drainage system was in operation. Today, village residents face a watery challenge because the system no longer works. Hayk Terteryan, who heads the Agricultural Division at the Ararat Regional Administration, says that the region has always been threatened by ever-increasing "swampification", but given the heavy rains of this year and the water releases from local fish hatcheries, the problem is worse than ever. Mr. Terteryan says that fish hatcheries are a growing business and that their numbers have drastically increased the past year. $350 Million to Clean Drainage System This year, under the auspices of the Millennium Challenge program, plans have been drawn up to clean 303 kilometers of pipes in the region’s drainage system, at a cost of $350 million. "The Deputy Prime Minister recently stated that $16 million will be spent yearly to clean out the system. Every year 200-250 kilometers of the system is cleaned and once every three years the work is repeated. But we can't do it all at once, it's a huge system of canals and pipes," said Mr. Terteryan. The problem exists in Sipanik and the other villages in the Masis District because rain water and sewage flowing from the capital of Yerevan is channeled through the Marz. The government has directed the appropriate agencies to immediately see to it that the water releases from the hatcheries is decreased. Mr. Terteryan agrees that decisive government action is needed to resolve the problem. As for Sipanik, this year 1.5 kilometers of new drainage conduits will be constructed this year and the exisiting infrastructure will be cleaned. Local Farmers Must Still Pay Taxes But these plans create new concerns for local farmers. They are worried that they will not be able to sow and harvest their fields during the peak growing season. Each village home has a small lake in the yard outside. Even though they will not be able to derive any profit from their fields, they will still be obliges to buy taxes on the lands. This just might be the straw that breaks the farmers' backs, who are already in dire economic straits. We asked Mr. Terteryan if the government was planning to assist strapped farmers with incentives or allowances of any king. He replied that the Regional Administration was not the agency that grants such alolowances and that local community heads must take the matter up with the national government in Yerevan. "Let the Sipanik mayor apply and we will provide support. et us assume for a moment that farmers were given breaks on land taxes, but those taxes go to fund local community budgets. They have to resolve this matter. Efforts must be made to see that the lands are productively used. Just cutting land taxes isn't the solution," added Mr. Terteryan. Area farmers say they will not be able to raise crops for several years in the foreseeable future; even if the waters dry up. Certain areas have been so inundated with moisture that they have been transformed into swamp-like environments. In some yards, two meter reeds have taken hold. Mr. Terteryan couldn't say how long it would take, if at all, to return the land back to its original condition. Sonik Kloyan and her family recently moved to Sipanik. They bought a house and renovated it, but then the water rose and all there work was ruined. "I didn't know about the water problem when I moved here. We are from Javakhk. We bought a house and spend alot to fix it up. But it's all been for naught. The moisture seeps into you bones. Some people can no longer walk normally," she says. The family used to keep livestock but were forced to sell them off once the barn was engulfed by the rising waters. "We had the animals slaughtered. That source of income no longer exists for us. We had to place rocks in the street to walk on. Now, the water has covered this makeshift footpath. We kept the chickens in the roost. We are farmers and have no have some animals, right? But we can't grow anything on the land. We tilled the fields, but it's useless now," says Sonik. The road to their house is covered with water and you need a boat to travel up to the barn, the water is that deep. The family has been living in these conditions for the past five months. Foul Smell in the Summer "We have no toilet. We can't build one because of the waters. These are prehistoric living conditions. If you have to use the toilet be ready to wear galoshes. We are at our wit's end as to what to do to live like normal folk," says Sonik. With the summer heat, the entire area is engulfed in a foul stank. The villagers have petitioned the municipality to dredge the canals and let the water flow. "A drainage system used to exist, but it was plundered; disassembled and carted off. They dumped dirt on top. The middle of the village is a disaster zone. They have to dig new conduits and pump the waters out. It won't flow on its own. It's not an expensive project. They just have to construct a few conduits and pumps. At least something similar must be done to draw away this water," says Sonik. 130 families reside in Sipanik; mostly refugees from elsewhere. Village Mayor Hayk Badalyan describes the general socio-economic situation of the community as not too given that much of the land is saline and, of course, due to the rising water levels. Most residents rely on the wages of family members who work abroad, especially in Russia. The mayor doesn't know when the village's problems will be adequately addressed. He is patiently awaiting some good news" from the government in Yerevan. "It's an old problem. In these conditions, land productivity is next to nothing. Even the trees quickly wither and die," lamented Mayor Badalyan.