Reports on Environment and Urban Development for Alaverdy

GEO ALAVERDI: ENVIRONMENT AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

however, there are many issues still remaining unsolved that is related to solid waste treatment and removal system. First, special attention must be paid to the waste disposal sites, where the non-neutralized wastes from the previous mining industry of Alaverdi are still buried. The Arsenic disposal site, located on a high altitude, on a hill by Lalvar River is full and is currently in a non-satisfactory condition. Oxidized materials cover the upper layer, which is a potential source of hazardous leaks. The whole area is within an active seismic zone, which creates an additional risk for uncontrolled spread of pollution. To avoid potential disasters and minimize the hazards, the high pressure airtight of waste disposal site should be recovered. Secondly, the city lacks of an industrial and domestic land fi ll. The city’s land fi ll is not controlled; it is located at a distance of 9 km from the community (within the administrative territory of Haghpat community), and the garbage collection vehicles hardly enter that area. Moreover, it is located on a hill, which makes all the works more complicated. The land fi ll is located at a distance of several meters from Debed River, which creates another environmental issue, related to the pollution of the river with solid wastes. It is a common practice that the drivers of garbage collection trucks prefer to through the garbage directly into the river, especially in winter, when most of the roads are covered by snow. Thus, there is an urgent need now to allot an appropriate land area for land fi ll and construct it according to the requirements speci fi ed by legislation. In order to construct a new land fi ll, currently 4,6 hectares of land in the northern part of the administrative territory of the city is foreseen. The municipality with the support of the Ministry of Nature Protection conducted an investigation of the site, prepared all the necessary documentation required by legislation and submitted to the Government for approval. According to themunicipality calculations, the average cost for the construction of the land fi ll is about 250 million AMD (all the calculation documents will be ready in the end of 2009). The current quantities of solid domestic waste amount to 120kg/per capita per year, whereas the sanitary cleaning of the streets accumulates 5kg of solid wastes per capita per year. In perspective, the solid domestic waste will amount to 14,4 thousand cubic meters (2880t) of waste annually, and the street garbage will amount to 120t per year. It might be mentioned that the SDW has the following statistical structure now: plastic and polymers: 8%, • paper and wood: 4%, • other wastes: 88%. • Taking into account the current volume of wastes and the trends of its increase in the future, it is necessary to plan the construction of a small capacity waste processing plant, with its respective land fi ll.

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CHAPTER 2. SOCIO – ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL CONTEXT

Environmental Knowledge for Change