The 'Salvation' of Lake Sevan
Source: https://www.construction.am
#sevan #arpasevan #armenia #eco
To the delight of all owners of coastal recreation areas, restaurants and cafes, Arpa-Sevan tunnel will be closed for reconstruction works, and the water of lake Sevan will not be able to rise; it will even decrease by 20 cm by this winter! The tender for work implementation won the same named company Arpa- Sevan, which offered the lowest price- 11.8 billion AMD (about $32 million).
Financing of the reconstruction works will be implemented by the Government of Armenia with support of Development found of Abu-Dhabi, OAE. The construction of 48.2 km Arpa-Sevan tunnel was started in 1961 and completed in 1981. The main contractor was "Arpasevanshin" company, which was the predecessor of Arpa-Sevan company. After commissioning of Arpa-Sevan tunnel, as an extension of Sevan lake rescue project Vorotan tunnel was built ( 21.6 km) to transfer water from Vorotan river to Arpa river. The renovation comes in handy not only for off-shore entrepreneurs, but for Government as well, because it will gain time to correct past mistakes.
Water level rising to 1901m mark above the sea (it is provided to raise it to 1903, 5m+ 1,5m for waves by 2032), caused unpredicted serious problems with coastal flooding. It is unclear how forests, pipelines, buildings and the roads were under the water and why water inflow from Arpa-Sevan tunnel and releases from the lake were not regulated to prevent that? The State suffered enormous damage, as cleaning already flooded areas will cost much more. In early 80's integrated activities were developed for gradually coastal cleaning up (to the extent of flooding) to 1905 m from buildings, trees and other vegetation, as well as total demolition of fertile topsoil. There was provision for creating new forests on new, higher marks, and constructing new roads and buildings. Note that lake Sevan before the drawdown of its water resources had high water quality and a unique fish fauna, consisting only of valuable fish species. As it was correctly forecasted even 40-50 years ago, at current low water level Sevan will transform from "trout" lake into the "carp" and later into the swamp! To save the lake it should risen at least to 1903.5 m, and has to be accompanied with the full implementation of all envisaged activities for bottom clearance, as increasing the level without cleaning will lead to the opposite-swamping result.
Financing of the reconstruction works will be implemented by the Government of Armenia with support of Development found of Abu-Dhabi, OAE. The construction of 48.2 km Arpa-Sevan tunnel was started in 1961 and completed in 1981. The main contractor was "Arpasevanshin" company, which was the predecessor of Arpa-Sevan company. After commissioning of Arpa-Sevan tunnel, as an extension of Sevan lake rescue project Vorotan tunnel was built ( 21.6 km) to transfer water from Vorotan river to Arpa river. The renovation comes in handy not only for off-shore entrepreneurs, but for Government as well, because it will gain time to correct past mistakes.
Water level rising to 1901m mark above the sea (it is provided to raise it to 1903, 5m+ 1,5m for waves by 2032), caused unpredicted serious problems with coastal flooding. It is unclear how forests, pipelines, buildings and the roads were under the water and why water inflow from Arpa-Sevan tunnel and releases from the lake were not regulated to prevent that? The State suffered enormous damage, as cleaning already flooded areas will cost much more. In early 80's integrated activities were developed for gradually coastal cleaning up (to the extent of flooding) to 1905 m from buildings, trees and other vegetation, as well as total demolition of fertile topsoil. There was provision for creating new forests on new, higher marks, and constructing new roads and buildings. Note that lake Sevan before the drawdown of its water resources had high water quality and a unique fish fauna, consisting only of valuable fish species. As it was correctly forecasted even 40-50 years ago, at current low water level Sevan will transform from "trout" lake into the "carp" and later into the swamp! To save the lake it should risen at least to 1903.5 m, and has to be accompanied with the full implementation of all envisaged activities for bottom clearance, as increasing the level without cleaning will lead to the opposite-swamping result.
