Lake Sevan, the largest body of water in Armenia, has always been subject to the needs of infrastructure. Since 2002, the level of Sevan has been rising, covering hundreds of hectares of land, buildings and construction sites. During the past ten years, the level of the lake has risen by four meters. Despite the objections of environmentalists and heavy rainfall, in 2012 the Armenian government decided to increase the amount of water pulled from the lake from 170 million cubic meters to 320 million in order to stave off ''drought conditions'' in the Ararat Valley.