YEREVAN. – Irrigation water is scarce in Armenia this year, State Water Management Committee official Adibek Ghazaryan said during a press conference on Tuesday.

In his words, there are 155,000-hectare irrigation lands in Armenia and 1 billion 130 million cubic meters of water is needed to irrigate them. But not enough water is collected in the reservoirs and, as a result, there is a shortage of close to 150 million cubic meters of irrigation water. And this deficit will be complemented solely by way of additional water release—totaling 320 million cubic meters—from Lake Sevan, whereas the Sevan Commission had proposed to complement some portion of the water shortage from the underground waters.      

But as per Ghazaryan, the underground waters in the Ararat Valley likewise have reduced over the years.

Adibek Ghazaryan also confessed that 60-70 percent of the water released from Lake Sevan is lost in the hydro energy system and in the water channels even before reaching the farmers.