$15.7 MLN TO BE INVESTED IN RESTORATION OF WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM OUTSIDE
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, JANUARY 20. ARMINFO. $15.7 mln will be invested in the next
four years under the WB credit program to restore the water supply
system outside Yerevan, says Patrick Lorin, General DIrector of
Armenian Water and Sewerage CJSC (AWSC)

He says that the right to use this money has been given to Saur France
group through a tender. The total cost of the WB credit is $23
mln. The remaining money will be spent on maintaining and managing
Saur and the project office. Aug 19 Saur and the Armenian Government
signed a management contract for 4 years with a 2 year prolongation
right.

The work under the contract was launched Oct 19 2004. First of all the
company is planning to restore the water supply systems of Sevan and
Dilijan, Armenia’s touristically most attractive resorts. Partly
repaired will be water economies in the country’s 30 towns and 300
villages.

Lorin says that presently AWSC is in a bad technical state. The
company’s water losses amount to 80% this due mostly to poor pipes and
illegal connections to water mains. He notes that the overhaul of
Armenia’s water system will take decades and cost $300 mln against
only $15.7 mln earmarked under the abovementioned project.

AWSC has 260,156 potential water users of them 176,846 being active
(timely paying for used water). The water supply schedule ranges from
2 hours to 24 hours from district to district with very few
subscribers receiving water round-the-clock. Subscribers having water
meters consume an average of 7 c m of water a month.

Lorin says that Saur is the third biggest water supply company in the
world. Each year it supplies 1.72 bln c m of drinking water to 52 mln
people making fertilizers from almost 3 mln tons of sewerage
waste. Saur’s annual turnover is 2.5 bln EUR. It employs 14,000 people
with 6,500 of them in France.