The Japanese government is ready to provide a grant to the Armenian government to assist in the implementation of a project to “Improve the firefighting equipment”. We were informed about this from the agenda of the government’s August 31 session.
However, the grant amount is not mentioned.
In the reference on the expediency of the grant agreement submitted to the government Minister of Emergency Situations Davit Tonoyan assures, that in several regions, fire engines are out of order. “Because of the morally and physically worn out condition of the fire engines, their malfunction cases in recent years have become more frequent during the operation. Many of the vehicles’ water tanks have been corroded and repairmen is impossible. Water pumps and vacuum system failures do not allow to take water from reservoirs when needed. Because of the lack of special aggregates and spare parts, current repairs are made with details of other vehicles that have been taken out of operation, because the spare parts are no longer being produced. However, special aggregators of some of the vehicles are so worn out, that their further renovation and exploitation have become impossible, so there is an urgent need to replace the vehicles with new ones”, Davit Tonoyan has mentioned in the reference. It is about fire-rescue services in Syunik, Lori and Shirak regions. It is also mentioned that the fire-fighting equipment, which is being operated in the fire-rescue squad of these regions, has almost not been updated since 1991, but they are being exploited, while they had to be taken out of operation in 2001.
David Tonoyan also says, “Because of the wear of these vehicles, fire-rescue squads of these regions, move at maximum 20-30 km /h while crossing the upward curves to handle emergencies, especially in border and high mountainous communities, so they reach the emergency place with an hour of delay, and therefore the response becomes meaningless. As a result, the environment, organizations, and citizens suffer significant material and moral loses.
Hence, the minister notes that the service should be upgraded with new vehicles and every detachment must have at least 2 vehicles. According to the minister, previous project experience shows that the Japanese fire engines are the most reliable and high in quality.
After getting acquainted with Tonoyan’s reference, the government will hardly deny the Japanese grant project.
Nelly BABAYAN
