YEREVAN. – The present-day level of Armenia’s Lake Sevan is 1,900.18 meters above sea level, and this is four centimeters less than the same period in the previous year, Chairman Vladimir Movsisyan of the Presidential Committee on Lake Sevan Issues said during a press conference on Wednesday.

As per Movsisyan, the lake’s water level dropped because additional water was released from it in 2012 for irrigation purposes.

Nonetheless, as per the official, the water level of the lake is still higher than the predicted.       

In line with the program that was adopted in 2002, the lake’s level should reach 1903.50 meters in the year 2030, and this will enable to store 42 billion cubic meters of fresh water. Vladimir Movsisyan informed that 790 reservoirs would have to be built—and close to $30 billion would have to be spent—elsewhere to be able to store 8 billion cubic meters of water, in the case when Armenia’s Lake Sevan is a natural storage of fresh water.