Tigran Simonyan, RA Deputy Minister of Environment of Armenia, presented the Ministry’s report on the 2020 performance at the March 18 session of the Parliament Standing Committee on Territorial Administration, Local Self-Government, Agriculture and Environment.
The Deputy Minister stated that a number of environmental programs were implemented in 2020.
Particularly, the production of ozone-depleting substances was banned, and a legislative initiative on the gradual reduction of disposable polyethylene bags has been adopted. Due to that, the sale of plastic bags up to 50 microns thick will be banned starting 2022.
Simonyan also reported that about 205 million cubic meters of water has flown to the Lake Sevan through Arpa-Sevan water tunnel since the beginning of the year, which is 46 million more than the same period last year. About 630,000 small fish were released into Lake Sevan as part of the trout recovery and fish farming program, of which about 600,000 were Gegharkuni and 30,000 - Summer trout.
About 204 tons of whitefish were industrially hunted. Measures have been taken to ban illegal whitefish hunting. Simonyan stated that there are many problems, and there is a need to eliminate legislative gaps.
