SPITAK IS STILL A DISASTER ZONE
Support A1+!18 years after the disastrous earthquake, the city of Spitak is still considered a disaster zone. «The loss was too grave. Spitak which was one of the most important industrial cities of the Soviet Union now has the problem of unemployment», said mayor of the city Vanik Asatryan in «Urbat» club today.
65% pf the 18 thousand residents of the city are unemployed. The major problem in the city is that of housing: there are still 368 families living in temporary houses. According to the mayor, till the end of the year 28 families will be given new houses.
According to Mr. Asatryan, the information about a number of families leaving their houses for good does not correspond to reality. “Several families leave for abroad in order to work there”. After the earthquake the country compensated the loss of private house owners with bankbooks which became merely a piece of paper after the inflation. Thus the statement that the country has compensated for the loss of some of the families is relative.
There are also a number of newly created families in Spitak that live in temporary houses. “This is not the problem of the government. We speak about those families who lost their houses in the earthquake”, the Spitak mayor said. He has realized that they cannot depend solely on the government while seeking solutions to their problems. “We created the fund “Revived Spitak” and started to build 8 houses with the help of businessmen from abroad. We also carried out reconstruction of streets. On the whole 380 thousand USD has been invested”.
