We present to your attention interesting thoughts and stories about incidents voiced by Gyumri residents during the monitoring and implementation of the social surveys of the “Participatory Monitoring for Quality Public Utilities in Gyumri” project.
Let us remind you that the initiative was made possible by the funding of the USAID and the “Protect Society for Responsible Governance” project implemented by the “Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center” NGO.

“The Honest Respondent”

I asked one of the residents:

-What do you do with your household garbage?

He answered:

-We will collect it, we will throw it away, – showing the garbage dump near the beetroot point (there are no garbage cans installed in the area).

“Let’s cover it with soil, it won’t be visible or there will be an ostrich effect.”

Some of the citizens noted that when they call the municipality about the lighting issue, the relevant people come and only change the bulb. The residents said that they have already changed the bulb several times, but after a few days it broke again. In response, the workers say that they have to do what they were told. In other words, in the event of a problem, they do not eliminate the cause, but provide a temporary solution to the problem.

“The citizen was upset”

One of the residents, who was not on my list of respondents, having learned that we are monitoring the lighting sector,
expressed his special complaint about the torn wires hanging from the poles. He expressed hope that this issue will “reach” the relevant people and this problem will be solved.

“The Second Life of Household Waste”

When asked “What method do you use to get rid of garbage?”, one of the residents of the bus station’s shantytown answered that she doesn’t throw out garbage at all. She showed me plastic bottles full of various types of garbage (paper, matchsticks, bags, fruit and vegetable peels, etc.). The woman collects them in a closet throughout the year. In the summer months, she dries the fruit and vegetable peels outside, and in the winter, she uses them as fuel. She said she learned this method from her neighbor.

From the series “Fiberglass, Fiberglass!”

There are many shantytowns in the bus station area, and after their demolition, construction waste and residues, in particular fiberglass, were not collected. Residents complain that the fiberglass reaches their yards through the wind, sticks to the laundry, and irritates the children’s skin. The residents have appealed to the municipality, but they have explained that until the people who received houses privatize the houses, the municipality cannot complete the dismantling of the houses and cleaning of the area.

“We have the pole – give me a wire and a lamp”

One of the residents of Lalayan Street asked that lighting be provided in their alleys (tertiary streets that branch off from the main streets) because there are stray dogs in the area, and it is especially dangerous in the area at night. The poles are there, but there are no lamps, or there is a problem with the wires.