Yerevan is Suffocating
One thing that always amazes me about many Armenians from the Diaspora when they come to Armenia is how easy they rationalize everything. In particular, they love the cafes in Central Yerevan and don’t even think about the fact that they are usually illegal and owned by corrupt officials or their business partners. The cafes are full, they say, ergo they are in demand.
No matter the fact that when there are no green spaces left in the center people have no choice but to sit at a cafe. Or that what we’re really talking about here is spiralling corruption and the lack of the rule of law in Armenia. And as I’ve pointed out through interviews and posts on this blog in the past, the lack of public parks has a psychological impact on residents of the city, as well as damaging the environment and public health.
Now, Eurasianet puts the damage in perspective.
A dramatic increase in respiratory diseases over the past several years means that Armenia is now struggling to breathe, physicians and public health specialists say. While government representatives downplay the problem, environmentalists point to desertification as the cause.
Between 2001 and 2005, the number of respiratory diseases registered in Armenia increased by 45 percent to just over 161,000 cases, according to statistics from the Ministry of Health.
Andranik Voskanyan, one of Armenia’s chief lung specialists, believes that the real number of individuals suffering from respiratory diseases, particularly asthma, is much higher than officially reported. Voskanyan estimates that the number of such cases has at least doubled in the past decade. He is also seeing respiratory disease strike at an earlier age. “A few years ago the youngest child suffering from asthma was five or six … [but] we now find this disease also among one to two-year-old[s],” said Voskanyan. “This is the reaction of the body to the environment.”
Voskanyan believes that shrinking green areas, industrial emissions, lack of quality control for imported fuel, and increased emissions from automobiles have played a central role in the increased number of respiratory diseases.
[…]
In Yerevan, where fashionable cafes have mushroomed recently in city parks, trees today cover only 2 percent of the land area, according to government statistics. In 2005, the amount of so-called “green area” available per resident in this city of 1.1 million stood at 4.2 square meters, a threefold decline from 1990 levels.
With fewer trees, fewer ways exist for removing emissions from cars and factories, according to environmentalists. At the same time, greater quantities of dust enter the atmosphere as the soil erodes.
“Soon it won’t be the amount of green area per resident that will be calculated, but the number of café chairs per resident, and café tables per family,” quipped one elderly Yerevan resident who regularly strolls in the capital’s parks.
Credit to the Diaspora where credit is due, though. Recent reports indicate that the Hayastan Fund will now pay for the rejuvination of the Pushkin Park near the Parliament. The French Government is also reportedly going to finance the establishment of a park. It’s well past time for most of the cafes to be closed down. The full article is here.
In most European countries they celebrate their cafe culture. I’m tired of hearing people complaining about Yerevan’s cafes. I think they are gems in the city, and give the average Yerevantzi a chance to indulge in a social, upscale European lifestyle for the price of a cup of coffee.
That being said, I totally agree that there should be parks and green space. And the time is now for that to happen because the city is under going so much construction. After that, it may be too late.
Anyone who’s ever visited Athens can take a look at what the future Yerevan could look like if care is not taken now to build it right. Athens is a cement city of 5 million people, that is now back peddling to try and make amends for it’s lack of city planning in the past.
But again in such an urban landscape, it is the cafe in addition to parks that is such a nice retreat from that hard urban jungle.
Comment by Kevork — October 22, 2006 @ 11:36 pm
AVERAGE MONTHLY DUST DENSITY EXCEEDS PERMITTED NORM 3.8 TIMES IN AUGUST IN YEREVAN
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 20, NOYAN TAPAN. Air basin was observed in RA towns of Yerevan, Gyumri, Vanadzor, Hrazdan, Alaverdi and Ararat in August. According to the data of RA National Statistical Service, density of contaminants was determined with 3356 samples of air taken in the above mentioned populated areas.
So, in August, average monthly dust density in Ararat exceeded the permitted norm 4.8 times, in Yerevan 3.8 times, in Hrazdan and Gyumri 2.8 times and in Vanadzor 1.3 times.
Comment by Onnik — October 23, 2006 @ 9:51 am