(17 Jun 1995) Russian/Nat

Armenia's financial difficulties are leading to major environmental problems.

The country's energy crisis has forced it to reopen hydroelectric power stations on Lake Sevan, steadily draining the country's main source of fresh water and causing severe erosion.

Animal and plant life in the area is being wiped out.

Cradled by mountain peaks at an altitude of almost 2-thousand metres above sea-level, Lake Sevan is at the heart of Armenia.

Loved not only for its timeless beauty and unique fauna, the ancient lake also supplies much of the small Caucasian republic with fresh water.

Today it is on the brink of ecological catastrophe.

Sevan is being bled dry by hydroelectric power stations. The damage is not new - the stations were closed in Soviet times for just that reason.

But the closure of Armenia's nuclear reactor following an earthquake in 1989 and an energy blockade by Azerbaijan forced the government to reopen the stations - with devastating consequences.

The lake once teemed with native speckled trout. Now the catch has slumped to less than one per cent of former levels and the fish is on the edge of extinction as the chemistry of the lake changes with the drop in level:

SOUND BITE: (Armenian)
Three or four years ago, the waters of Sevan lapped against these banks. Fish could be caught right here on the edge of the lake. But as you see, the waters have retreated 200 metres from this point.
SUPER CAPTION: Ivan Vartanyan, Fisherman

Armenia is dependent on Sevan for over 50 per cent of its electric power.

The energy crisis gripping the republic is so deep that even trees planted to combat erosion on the drained shores have been chopped down for fuel.

And financial dire straits mean that construction projects for sewage treatment plants at the edge of Sevan have been abandoned - now raw effluent is simply pumped into the lake.

Many of the species inhabiting the lake environment, like the Armenian sea gull, are unique to Sevan. Only one nesting colony of the sea gull remains:

SOUND BITE:
There were three other such colonies on neighbouring islands. Now they are gone. As the islands joined the mainland, the nesting grounds were opened to man, cattle and predators.
SUPER CAPTION: Karen Sarkisyan, Deputy Director, Sevan National Park.

But the cost of saving Sevan is potentially lethal - reopening the nuclear reactor in a known seismic danger zone. The Armenian government has the unenviable task of wrestling with this terrifying dilemma.

It is understood to have chosen to reopen the reactor as soon as July this year.

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