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At March 18 sitting of the NA Standing Committee on Territorial Administration, Local Self-Government, Agriculture and Environment, the RA Deputy Minister of Environment Tigran Simonyan presented the report of the Ministry on the execution sheet for 2020.

According to it, 2 deep pits were dug and 4 conservation works were done in the regions of Ararat and Armavir in the financial year. 29 deep pits were locked.

More than 1,500 l/sec. of water was economized. It was formulated 190 new permission applications for water use – aimed at fish farming, irrigation, drinking water and industry. 14 applications for building small hydropower plants were rejected. Online water meters were installed and signed 12 small hydropower plants in water intake points. 145 online water meters were installed and signed in 111 out of 152 small hydropower plants.

About 205mln cubic meters of water entered the Lake Sevan – Arpa - Sevan water pipe from the beginning of the year, which is 46mln more than the index of the last year of the same day. 630,000 small fish, out of which about 600,000 were from Gegharkunik and 30,000 were summer trout, they were released into Lake Sevan in the framework of the restoration of the trout reserves and the programme of fish farming.

An industrial hunting of 204 tonnes of whitefish was implemented. Measures were taken to ban the illegal hunting of the whitefish. It was mentioned that there are many problems: there is a need to eliminate the legislative gaps.

The deputy Sarik Minasyan raised a question of citizens’ protection from street dogs. It was mentioned that the neutered dogs are also dangerous for people, in the connection of which Tigran Simonyan clarified that the settlement of that issue is not in the domain of the ministry. The deputy minister agreed that there is really a problem and it is necessary that the relevant bodies find a solution urgently.

The Deputy Minister also informed that a number of environmental programmes were implemented in 2020.

In particular, production of ozone depleting substances was banned, the legislative initiation on gradual reduction of disposable plastic bags was accepted. Due to that, the sale of bags with 50micron thickness will be banned from 2022.