YEREVAN. – Demand for additional water intake is a requirement of weather conditions, said the head of the Water Committee under the Armenian Ministry of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources, Inessa Gabayan.

Her remarks came during a special session of the Armenian National Assembly on Tuesday when  the amendments to the law on Lake Sevan are debated.

According to the proposed law, the amount of water to be released from Lake Sevan for irrigation purposes in 2018 is expected to increase from 170 million cubic meters to up to 210 million cubic meters.

Gabayan noted that it is impossible now to solve the issue of providing irrigation territories without Sevan.

“Since July, the irrigation system has been tackling the fiscal austerity. Filling the existing deficit with all possible sources, amounted to 120 million cubic meters, today we reduced the figures to 40 million,” she said.

The speaker also presented to the parliament the indicators on the irrigation system Sevan-Hrazdan. According to her, the system irrigates 35.7 thousand hectares of land. The annual applications of water user companies amounted to 345 million drams. To ensure the specified amount of water, JRAR CJSC planned to take 499.5 million cubic meters of water from water sources.

According to her, losses of water in inter-farm and intra-farm networks are 43%.

As reported earlier, the National Assembly of Armenia on Tuesday is holding a special session initiated by the government.

The bill on making additions to the law on approving the programs toward the restoration, preservation, reproduction, and use of the ecosystem of Lake Sevan is on the agenda of this special session.

According to Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan, this is one of the most delicate issues on the agenda as the government has held several discussions on the situation in the irrigation system over the past one and a half months.

"Armenia’s irrigation system needs drastic improvements, including organizational ones, to understand the reality, as the media outlets are pointing to the existence of a “water mafia” in the Republic of Armenia, and if so, it should be defeated as soon as possible,” Nikol Pashinyan said.