In the first reading, the National Assembly discussed the draft law "On Amendments and Amendments to the Water Code of the Republic of Armenia" with the attached legislative package.
Deputy Minister of Environment Tigran Gabrielyan informed that in order to legalize existing problems related to the illegal use of underground water resources of the Ararat Artesian Basin, according to the draft law "On Amendments and Amendments to the Water Code of the Republic of Armenia", in the event of the cessation of water use from the well, the liquidation or conservation works of the well with a hydro engineering permit have been fixed. A requirement to be implemented by the organization, a ban has been planned for re-opening of liquidated wells, as well as conserved wells without a water use permit.
The draft law "On Amendments and Amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses" provides for the application of differentiated administrative penalties for cases of illegal use of water from surface and underground water resources, as well as increased administrative responsibility for reopening liquidated wells or using water from underground water resources without a water use permit or drilling for this purpose. for implementing or reopening conserved wells, as well as for non-compliance with water use permit requirements in the case of water use from artesian waters.
From the current liability articles, the cases intended for the whitefish species were separated and stricter liability measures were defined for them.
The draft law "On Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia" provides for criminal liability for reopening liquidated wells or for using water from underground water resources without a water use permit or for reopening conserved wells without a water use permit, if this has caused large-scale property or other significant damage to the rights of a person or organization. , freedoms or legal interests, agriculture, buildings, cultural assets, fauna or flora or their resources, land, water or other legal interests of society or the state.
For illegal hunting or illegal extraction of whitefish, the amount exceeding AMD 150,000 was considered a large amount of damage.
It is expected that the adoption of the projects will prevent the illegal use of water from underground water resources, the drilling for this purpose or the reopening of dissolved or conserved wells, water intake in violation of the conditions given by the water use permit, as well as the illegal hunting or illegal extraction of whitefish from Lake Sevan.
During the exchange of ideas, the MPs emphasized the fight against illegal water abstraction, illegal extraction and hunting of whitefish.
It is considered necessary to have a new water resource management strategy, taking into account a number of circumstances.
Deputy Minister Tigran Gabrielyan said that now the Ministry of Environment is developing a strategy on the environment, which also includes a new water management strategy related to challenges.
He informed that discussions related to the project were held both with the scientific community and stakeholders.