Level of lake of Sevan will drop by 9-12 centimeters by January 1, 2015

YEREVAN, September 19. / ARKA /. The level of Armenia’s largest Lake of Sevan will drop by 9-12 centimeters by January 1 next year, if the water brought in by inflowing rivers drops and the evaporation increases due to climate changes, Levon Azizyan, the head of Hydrology Service Center, an affiliation of the Ministry of Emergencies, said today.

Speaking at a news conference he said spring flooding usually rises the level of the lake by 45 centimeters, but this year it rose only by 25 centimeters. 

According Azizyan, law water levels in Armenian rivers this year resulted from low rainfalls last autumn and low snow cover that was below the norm 2-3 times. He said none of the four major reservoirs in the country was filled fully. 

According to him, the Akhuryan reservoir had only 281 million cubic meters of water, down from  492 million cubic meters in 2013, Lake Arpi had 43.6 million cubic meters, down from 66 million cubic meters, the Azat reservoir had 48.9 million cubic meters, down from 52 million cubic meters in 2013 and the Aparan reservoir had 24.7 million cubic meters, the lowest level  in the last 25 years.

The government of Armenia on 30 January 2014 approved a set of amendments to the “Law on restoration and protection of Lake Sevan’s ecosystem," permitting thereby to increase the volume of water pumped out from the lake for irrigation purposes until 2019. The volume of water is to be increased from the current 170 million to 240 million cubic meters per year.

The limit for each year will be set depending on reserve of water in the irrigation system of the Ararat valley. By 2019 the government plans to build several new water reservoirs to resolve this issue.

Lake Sevan, one of the largest alpine lakes in Europe and Asia, is located in the heart of the Armenian plateau, at an altitude of 1,914 meters. The lake stretches over 70 kilometers from northwest to southeast. Its water surface area is nearly 1,500 square kilometers. The lake is the main source of drinking water in the region. The water level in the lake is to be raised to the optimum of 1,903.5 meters by 2030. –0—