Executive Director of the International Association of River Keepers "Eco-TIRAS" Ilya Trombitsky said hydropower remains an important component of the energy systems of the Eastern Partnership countries. In addition to the shunting capacities required to cover the peak loads, hydropower, in the context of the growth of renewable energy, is considered as balancing capacity, the demand for which is sharply increasing. Small hydropower plants are considered as a solution to the problem of power supply to remote mountain regions.
“But will our rivers withstand the increasing pressure of hydropower in the face of climate change and decreasing water availability? How to assess the impact of hydropower on river ecosystems and related ecosystems? What rivers’ ecosystem services are being lost and degraded by hydropower, and who is losing from it? How to assess the loss of ecosystem services and to ensure their restoration? The answers to these questions were looked for by the experts of the project "Ecosystem Services and Hydropower: piloting the European instruments in the river basins of the Eastern Partnership countries", which was carried out with the financial support of the European Union,” Ilya Trombitsky stated in a news conference at IPN.
Ilya Trombitsky, who is the project coordinator, noted that the assessment of ecosystem services should become the main tool that should be used to objectively assess the consequences of the impact of hydropower projects on river and near-water ecosystems, because for decision makers and for the population it is not at all obvious that the profit received from the energy production of river water is the result of the loss of those services that were used by the country as a whole and by individuals.
Ruslan Gavrilyuk, Head of the National Ecological Centre of Ukraine, said that for many decades, hydropower industry has been exploiting the rivers of Ukraine, while it was believed that water is a renewable resource, and the impact on the state of river ecosystems was not assessed. Rivers have been exploited to generate electricity, which is one of the ecosystem services, and river ecosystems have degraded to the point that all other ecosystem services have been lost or significantly decreased. “It is important to understand that every day we use the ecosystem services provided by the environment, including rivers. In this way, we act as driving forces of negative changes in ecosystems, affecting ecosystem services,” stated Ruslan Gavrilyuk.
Aram Gabrielyan, of the Environmental and Cultural NGO “Khazer”, said the order of the Government of the Republic of Armenia of 2013 to develop a draft law on ecosystem services by the end of 2015 has not yet been fulfilled. The results of the study on ecosystem services in the pilot basin of the Argichi river in the basin of Lake Sevan showed that that the operation of the small HPP "Argichi" (installed capacity of 9.8 MW) on this river caused catastrophic damage to the ichthyofauna, consisting of 6 species of fish, and at the same time led to the loss of other ecosystem services that were widely used by the population of eight settlements located in the river basin before SHPP operation started in 2013. At the same time, active construction small hydropower plants under the small hydropower development program (the number of operating small hydropower plants has reached 188, and 23 more construction licenses have been issued) continues, as a result of which the natural river ecosystems in Armenia are practically lost.
The project is being implemented thanks to the Regranting-2020 scheme of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum with the financial support of the European Union as part of supporting the civil society in the region. Its content is the sole responsibility of the International Environmental Association of River Keepers Eco-TIRAS and of the project partners and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.
