Rehabilitating water supply in rural Armenia

Armenia, Armenia Inter-Church Charitable Round Table Foundation (ART)

The Armenia Inter-Church Charitable Round Table Foundation (ART), a member of the ACT Alliance, focuses on the rehabilitation of drinking water infrastructure (pipelines) in order to ensure access to safe drinking water. The project also demonstrates the benefits of a strong working relationship with the private sector.

Drinking water is available only for a few hours a day in towns and cities. In rural areas problems are more serious, as there are communities where drinking water is brought in trucks and sold in canisters. One key challenge in many areas is that politically, economically and socially privileged people and clans take the main amount of water, be it for irrigation or drinking. These groups can install pipes with a bigger diameter and take the most of the water while few dares to speak up against out against such a practice. In other cases those living in the higher locations can easily take as much water as they like, even irrigating their orchards with drinking water.

A number of techniques are utilized by ART-ACT to ensure fair access.  To ensure fair distribution of water to all and equal quantities, the project constructs daily distribution basins so that each household has a separate outlet.  In this case it is not possible for one household to use all or a disproportionately large amount of water. Several reservoirs are installed down the slope servicing four to five houses. Each of these houses is connected using separate outlets and pipes. This idea is a local initiative and was first utilised in the village of Dzoravank.

Drinking water throughout Armenia is managed by a private company which has its branches in all regions and they are ultimately responsible for maintenance of the system.  In this project, the private company willingly supports ART’s work and provides all the needed special equipment free of charge as well as consultancy by a hydro engineer.

All ART water and sanitation projects use integrated community development (ICD) approaches, addressing the spiritual needs of the community, the promotion of human rights, and capacity building as a cross cutting issue. The most important element is community empowerment through participation, meaning that community groups take part in all stages of the project, from the development of the idea to the project’s monitoring and evaluation.

→ For more details, download the "Good Practice Questionnaire" that was submitted to the UN Independent Expert on human rights obligation related to water and sanitation in 2010.