YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am) — The government indicated on Thursday, May 30, that it will ask foreign states and international donors to help it rebuild roads, bridges and other infrastructure in Armenia’s northern regions devastated by weekend floods.
Rivers flowing through the Tavush and Lori provinces burst their banks early on Sunday, May 25, killing four people, flooding towns and villages located along them and severely damaging local infrastructure. It was the country’s worst flooding in decades.
“The scale of the disaster is huge,” Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Gnel Sanosyan said during a cabinet meeting in Yerevan.
Sanosyan, who heads a government task force dealing with the aftermath of the disaster, said the resulting material damage is so extensive that authorities are still calculating it. He singled out the full or partial destruction of about 20 bridges located in the area.
“I think that we should ask our [international] partners to provide concrete assistance, especially in the field of bridge construction,” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan noted in response.
Both Pashinyan and Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said that some of those partners have already expressed readiness to assist Armenia in the post-flood reconstruction.
