By Azernews

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

The scandal associated with the garbage problem does not subside in Armenia. Sanitek Armenia, which is the waste management company, announced its financial difficulties, directly linking them to unreasonable fines from the Yerevan Municipality.

Earlier, Yerevan Municipality fined Sanitek for failing to fulfill its obligations for a total of 75 million drams (about $150,000).

Mayor of Yerevan Hayk Marutyan said Sanitek company failed its activities already in late 2017. He emphasized that the company withdrew funds and did not make the necessary investments to ensure garbage collection in the capital.

While Sanitek and the Yerevan city administration make claims against each other and information attacks are taking place on both sides, the Armenian capital continues to choke on garbage.

Armenia enters the international garbage rating, taking in it already sixth place. Armenia is included in the list of countries producing the most garbage per capita. Every Armenian citizen accounts for 16.3 tons of garbage per year.

hen the municipality began to put pressure on the company, it became obvious that there would be more garbage in Yerevan. As a result, the contradictions between the two sides only led to the aggravation of the garbage collection problem.

Obviously, the city administration is responsible for organizing the collection of garbage. Responsibility for the purity of the city lies precisely on the Municipality’s shoulders, regardless of how Sanitek behaves.

The problem with garbage collection in Yerevan became aggravated even in the summer of 2018. Sanitek company ceased to cope with its duties, explaining this to problems with equipment and other reasons.

Meanwhile, the garbage crisis in Yerevan is growing every day. Accusations against Sanitek in the occurrence of the current situation does not relieve the Municipality’s responsibility for ensuring the cleanliness of the Armenian capital. It seems that the Yerevan mayor's office does not have a developed policy for garbage collection and therefore cannot cope with the situation.

Unsanitary conditions are observed throughout Yerevan, and the threat of spreading epidemics, invasions of rats, cockroaches and other carriers of diseases have appeared. Remarkable that the Armenian Health Ministry still does not respond to a dangerous situation.

Today, Armenia practically does not produce anything, therefore the indicated volumes of garbage are household waste. Thus, if consider that there is an acute problem of garbage collection in Yerevan and all this huge amount of waste is stored on the streets of the Armenian capital, it is not surprising that rats are walking in the Armenian main city.