*Reprinted From ArmeniaNow.com with permission.

May 2005

SPLASH ATTACK: Park Pools And Streams May Not Be Safe For Child Play

By Marianna Grigoryan
ArmeniaNow.com Staff Reporter

When the Yerevan heat becomes unbearable and suffocating, and when the Opera House roof thermometer shows figures no one wants to see, many children find comfort where they can – in park pools and streams.

Though meant as landscape scenery, pools and fountains of Republic Square, Swan Lake and others, as well as the stream in Hrazdan Gorge, become noisy with the splashing play of bare-skinned youth.

Robert Harutiunian takes his two grandchildren to different fountains throughout the city. “Today this is our opportunity, as we have no other choice,” the grandfather says.

But the price for a free swim may be costly to the children, as specialists say the waters contain health risks, from micro-organisms in the water and from infection spread by it.

“As a result of research carried out from time to time it became clear that mainly in all the places like that there is a danger of epidemics,” says Marieta Basilisian, leading specialist of the Anti-epidemic Department on Control of Hygiene of the Ministry of Health. “Different pathogenic organisms were found in places where children prefer to spend their time.”

Sergey Karapetian, head of the sanitary hygienic department of the Center on Disease Control and Prevention is in charge of the research and says there are reasons for concern and cases of disease outbreaks. “If we don’t pay serious attention to them it’s possible that cases of epidemics can be registered as well.”

Karapetian says recent tests found organisms that can infect the alimentary canal, that fester because the decorative pools have not been disinfected and do not meet accepted health standards.

It is possible, doctors say, that a variety of intestinal disease, including dysentery, and disorders can be transmitted through the water.

“It is strictly prohibited to swim in decorative pools and fountains because, late in the evenings rich people wash their dogs in those places despite our prohibitions,” Basilisian says. “It’s not hard to guess what can happen with a child who will swim in the same place the next day.”

Specialists say the natural waters are even more dangerous than decorative ones.

“Our service discovered in Hrazdan Gorge pathogenic organisms of dysentery and that fact worries us very much,” Karapetian says. “It is strictly prohibited to swim in that place, where not only children but adults as well like to swim. However, the prohibition is still just only words.”

The scientists and doctors say the worrisome situation is a result of inadequate filtering stations and the lack of disinfectants for decorative pools.

“Today 19 filtering stations of the city can clean the rivers and lakes only from pollution,” Karapetian says. “Decorative pools are not disinfected at all. The only way to prevent the infections is to spread the information.

“However, this problem is still very serious and real, taking into consideration the fact that not everybody follows the news and it’s impossible to solve the problem only by that means.”