Lake Sevan’s water level dropped 14 centimeters compared to last year as of January 4, 2023.
As of January 4 the lake was at an altitude of 1900 meters and 28 centimeters above sea level, the ministry of environment’s Center of Hydro-Meteorology and Monitoring said.
In the first three days of 2023, 172,000 cubic meters of water was brought to Lake Sevan through the Arpa-Sevan tunnel (including subsurface flow).
According to Arayik Hunanyan, the head of the scientific department at the Sevan National Park, the lake’s water level decrease is mostly due to unusual weather conditions: dry and warm temperature.
“No excess water release for irrigation was done last year, but throughout the year there was low precipitation, lasting drought, which contributed to increasing volumes of evaporation in the lake and decrease of river flows. And now the dry weather continues, there’s no snow layer on the ground or in the mountains, and the lake’s level continues to drop as a result of this,” Hunanyan said.
