Residents’ life on a razor edge
It is already ten years residents of House 127/1 in Yerevan's Nor Aresh district have been sleeping with fear in their hearts for groundwater has reached their flats giving rise to major concerns.
Most of the residents today suffer from respiratory diseases.
They can even see the walls of neighboring flats through the cracks.
According to residents rocks continually fall in the yard where children play all day long.
Five hundred people live in this rundown building which was constructed as a hostel in 1974.
In 1990, the building was announced to be in bad repair.
"Geological surveys in 1969 cancelled the construction of the hostel for two years, for the site was considered to be unfit for construction," said resident Albert Gevorgyan.
"You can hardly find a healthy tenant. We no longer think about us, we want to save our children," added Miriam Papanyan.
They have repeatedly appealed to the government. The tenants say 1 billion drams has been allocated to three hostels in Yerevan by a May 6 decision of Yerevan Elders' Council.
"The head of Real Estate Management Department of Yerevan Mayor's Office says the money is not in his hands. Fifty apartments have been built by the means of the state budget; another new building is being constructed at 22 Sisakyan. They say these flats are not meant for us. It seems that we are not residents of this city," said indignant Albert Gevorgyan.
The Mayor's Office has promised to settle the issue within five days.
"We have given them ten days but if they fail to tackle the issue by then we shall start a hunger strike," said Grigoryan.
