The trial regarding the construction of a public toilet in Noyemberyan is under way in the trial court of the Tavush region. The plaintiff is Samvel Gishyan, a resident of Noyemberyan, the defendant is the town hall of Noyemberyan. S. Gishyan wants the court to forbid the construction of a public toilet in the town. The last session took place on December 12. The plaintiff filed a motion to postpone the session, in order to put forward some documents.
There is no public toilet in the town of Noyemberyan that has about 6 thousand residents and is a former center of an administrative district, and it causes the residents of not only the town, but also the district to be displeased.
The mayor of Noyemberyan, Vanush Amiraghyan, intends to carry out his old promise, i.e. to put a public toilet in the town into operation. The construction of the toilet is sponsored by Counterpart International, the project costs 6 million 172 thousand AMD, the community invested 4 million 349 thousand AMD. The mayor said that no money is provided for by the project to clean the 400m² area around the toilet that is built next to the town’s soccer field.
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A meeting of the town’s businessmen and heads of NGOs took place the other day. During the meeting 140 thousand AMD were raised to clean the area around the toilet, the fundraising for that is still in progress.
The interests of Samvel Gishyan in court are defended by Khachatur Marozyan, the head of International Association of Lawyers and Psychologists, an NGO, and lawyer Martin Shirinyan. K. Marozyan said that Samvel Gishyan was a member of their association and had applied to them for help. The problem is the location of the toilet. Marozyan and Shirinyan said to a journalist of Aravot that the town hall didn’t have a right to build a toilet that is not far from Samvel Gishyan’s ceremonial hall and is connected to an open gutter, that according to the instruction of the Ministry of Healthcare, a public toilet must be 50m away from
buildings, whereas the toilet to be operated is only 16-20m away. They also deemed inappropriate the location of the toilet, according to the mentioned instruction, a public toilet must be in a busy place.
Samvel Gishyan said that the residents of the neighborhood had written a letter of complaint, by which they expressed their discontent about insanitary situation that will be caused by operating the toilet. According to S. Gishyan, there is no drainage system in the vicinity; there is just an open gutter. In S. Gishyan’s words, he had applied to the hygienic and anti-epidemic agency, region of Tavush, but he has gotten no answer; the Noyemberyan section of the water supply system gives contradictory information on the existence of a drainage system in the vicinity. Mayor Vanush Amiraghyan says that there is a drainage system there; it extends to the gorge through a closed pipe.
Representatives of the town hall say that the ceremonial hall that belongs to Samvel Gishyan is not legally registered. Besides, Samvel Gishyan operated a public toilet, which is now destroyed, not far from the newly-built toilet a few years ago.
The trial is still at the preliminary stage.
Voskan SARGSYAN
