Residents of Garni community continue their struggle -EcoLur (video)
For two years, residents of Garni community in Armenia’s Kotayk marz have been fighting against the gravity irrigation system project (named Kaghtsrashen). Under the project, part of the water in the Azat River should be transferred to Ararat Region for irrigation purposes. In the past (and till the present) the villages in Ararat used to receive their water from Azat reservoir that was filled with waters from Azat river. The project was not unanimously welcomed by the locals. One of the villages that opposes the irrigation project for the second year in a row is Garni. They are joined by the residents from Goght village. During the past two years, Garni residents have blocked Garni-Yerevan highway several times , thwarted public debates organized by the State Committee for Water Management, sent a letter-complaint to the Washington office of the World Bank, which funds this project. Only after the former Prime Minister of Armenia, Hovik Abrahamyan, promised to stop the implementation of the project, did the locals stop the rough methods of struggle. Today. Garni residents don’t consider their matter to be finally resolved. They continue their fight for changes, this time in local government elections.
