“Hakarvik”- a structure safeguarding the area and ensuring water drainage built adjunct to one of Kapan’s landslide zones- has now become a threat to residents of neighboring houses.

A resident of 39th lane of Railroaders’ street Valentina Shahverdyan is forced to take her school-age child to a kindergarten in summer so that he doesn’t play in the yard, because the hole caused by landslide and gradual erosion makes playing outside a dangerous leisure for children.

Residents say that about 4 months ago the first small land collapse happened. Experts from the local administration body and municipality went to take a look. “We thought ‘it’s just land subsiding’ They came examined, said it’s out of their power ‘it’s your yard, do what you want’. And so, residents, brought some earth and poured there to be able to use the road,” says Shahverdyan. A month ago, after heavy rainstorms, a big land-collapse appeared.

Now water is accumulating in the hole. When in the mid-90s one of the hills adjacent to this street collapsed because of major landslide, they brought the earth from there and poured here. Anti-torrent channels were built to drain underground water. Now those are broken, the linking units are clogged with earth so water is virtually not removed any more.

There are private houses in this area, but mainly two families are under direct threat, living with a fear that any day it might collapse. The road has more and more new cracks; the landslide area is getting bigger now reaching their yards.

“Any moment somebody can fall in and nobody would be able to rescue. But we are at least familiar with the surroundings, other people and cars not familiar with it come here, there isn’t even a light to diffuse the darkness so that they could at least see around. Are they waiting for somebody to suffer before they’d do anything?” angrily asks resident Suren Martirosyan, 52.

When it collapsed for the second time, experts came again. “They said: ‘we will come and fix this’ but nobody has done anything. We ask the head of local administration body or the mayor to come and see. If their yard was in such state, would they like it?” he says.

Shahverdyan stresses that there isn’t a structure in the town they haven’t turned to for help, but the result is only the collapse growing with each passing day. “We have information that the municipality has sent a letter to Yerevan yet in March, but so far they haven’t received an answer.”

Vilen Badalayn, head of Kapan municipality’s department of urban development, says that yet in March a joint commission was formed by the municipality and Rescue Service, the municipality wrote a letter to local officials which in turn sent one to the RA government: Ministry of Territorial Administration based on the fact that in 1996 construction was funded from the state budget, and carried out by a special engineering company. “This is an engineered structure; it’s not us who can decide whether to add earth or whatever else that needs to be done. The issue needs engineers’ solution.”

Kapan’s chief engineer, Badalyan, says that water drainage isn’t taking place normally, because the channel is partly clogged, and it threatens to get completely clogged in case of heavy rains and torrents.

“The work that needs to be done here requires major financing, but even if we find funds from somewhere, we are not authorized to make a decision,” says Badalyan.