Children playing near debris and glass fiber
Pursuant to the government-approved order on giving apartments to the families left homeless as a result of the 1988 devastating earthquake, families should destroy [in a short period of time] their temporary shelters, vacate the areas and give to the community. Only then they will have the right to privatize the new flats, with the exception of multi-member families having two and more lodges who are allowed to keep one of them.
The huge construction waste that emerges after destruction is highly dangerous to human health: glass fibers and glass cotton are left in the place of the destroyed lodges. In the past years, the state budget allocated the Gyumri Municipality huge sums of money for the demolition of temporary shelters and removal of debris. Today, the community does not receive and financial assistance and the owners of temporary shelters either sell the building materials or remove from the site leaving material debris piled up there.
Representatives of the local Shirak Center NGO witnessed a similar picture during their visit to a local community, with children playing in the neighborhood of the debris and glass fibers.
