Reports on Environment and Urban Development for Alaverdy

GEO ALAVERDI: ENVIRONMENT AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

More vulnerable areas of the health sector are the provision of medical services and the obsolete conditions of the medical facilities, as well as the low level of awareness on healthy life-style, i.e. balanced food, family planning and proper sexual education. The level of awareness on the regulations about medical services stated in the acting legislation is also low. The studies have shown that despite the fact that the educational facilities have been rehabilitated to a certain extent for the last years, however, they still do not provide comfortable and safe environment for children. A number of rehabilitated educational facilities do not have heating, and most of them do not even have water supply. Besides all this, there is a lack of out-class studies, as well as professional training and leisure opportunities in the schools, which results in high quantities of migration in youth. The quality of education in the schools is noticeably low, as there is no professor for each of the subjects taught, there are no training opportunities for the tutors, and there is a need for study materials (literature), laboratory consumables and computers. Though the population does not give importance to the gender issues, however, the job opportunities for women are strictly limited with a need for professional training. The majority of women worked in the two local factories, in the Soviet period. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, when those factories closed, these women became unemployed, though having very technical experience and narrow specialization. They were not able to fi nd any job afterwards. The copper mining and the explorations in the territory are of a serious threat for the environment of the region. Because of pollution from the copper processing plant, 15-20 times exceedances of the maximum permissible concentrations of sulfur dioxide in the ambient air are often registered in the city, which is a serious hazard for the human health. The city does not have a land fi ll, and the solid wastes are discharged directly into Debed River. The urban wastewater treatment plant does not work since 1991, thus the domestic wastewaters are discharged directly into Debed River. In the result of energy and industrial crisis of 1991- 1996, the forested areas around and the gardens inside the city were destroyed signi fi cantly. The low level of public awareness on environmental issues and the incomplete realization of the real threats from those actions were present as well.

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CHAPTER 2. SOCIO – ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL CONTEXT

Environmental Knowledge for Change