FROM SPRINGS TO TAPS: STEPANAKERT MUNICIPALITY PROMISES RESIDENTS WATER SUPPLY

KarabakhOpen
17-05-2008 13:11:42

In early May Stepanakert municipality announced a tender for a
reconstruction project of the city’s water supply system and promised
the residents to have all the documents ready for modernization of
the system within the coming months.

Stepanakert’s water supply system, inlayed in the 1930s, has long
ceased to meet the needs of the city with a population of 50,000. The
majority of residents have running water for 2 hours every other
day. In rainy weather water gets turbid, in winter pipes freeze,
in summer, when rivers becomes shallow, the city is left without water.

Four Armenia-based organizations applied for the tender, with their
projects of how to provide Stepanakert with steady water supply.

A joint project of Yerevan Engineering University and Armvodproekt
Institute won the tender, however it’s not clear yet how the project
is going to be funded. It is only known that the project will be
carried out by state budget and other means.

This year the water situation in Stepanakert has been especially
bad. Most of the city hasn’t had water since the New Year- when
the weather got unusually cold for Karabakh. Not only pipes, but
water mains froze. It was only after the spring thaw that people had
water again.

"We carry water from nearby springs," says Narek Grigoryan, a resident
of Armenavan region in Stepanakert. "We have two 40-liter canisters
ready in our basement. We use them both in summer, when we have running
water only once a week, and in winter. This winter we didn’t have
tap water for two and a half months. Then the whole street was dug,
and never asphalted again. Now we are waiting for summer again. They
say it’s going to a hot one."

The presence of water tanks on roofs or in basements, as well as
of pumps, has become a symbol of prosperity and comfortable life
in Stepanakert.

However even those are of little help in a winter as severe as the
past one.

Frozen tanks broke, and water burst out, flooding upper stories of
the houses.

During every election or appointment of the capital’s mayor loud
promises were made about water. Some 10 years ago the municipality
tried to solve the issue by means of creating a circular plumping
system and construction of new pump stations. But no tangible results
have been felt so far.

Vodokanal (water channel) company has drawn the authorities’ attention
to the dilapidation of the whole system (some facilities were built
in 1930) and spoke about a cardinal solution of the problem.

Mayor of Stepanakert Vazgen Mikayelyan stressed that works will be
carried out at the filtering stations, reservoirs, as well as the
main Gaybalin water supply system. All the pipes will be replaced by
new ones. The open sectors of Gaybalin water supply system will be
inlayed on a depth that matches defined norms.

Recently businessmen from Moscow visited Stepanakert and promised
to make major investments in the water supply system. "Hayastan"
All-Armenian Fund also promised to assist the project.

The city authorities promise that by summer residents will have
running water every day for 6 hours, and round-the-clock supply-
sometime in the future.

The director of Vodokanal Vladimir Arzumanyan says that Stepanakert
water comes from rivers Traget, Meghraget, Vararakn. Besides, the
city has 3 pump stations supplying water to several districts of
Stepanakert.

"The city gets from 78-80 liters of water/second, residents have 1,5
hours of running water per day," he says.

Arzumanyan says that the population uses water wastefully: "Of
course people have tap water only every other day and have to store
water. They install tanks, don’t watch how much water they use, and
water goes to sewage, when a part of the population doesn’t get water
at all."

"The issues can be solved by installing mass water meters," he says.

"We haven’t managed to complete the installation process yet, as the
pipes are old, and accidents happened at the water stations all the
while." Loss of water makes 70-80 percent because the pipes are in
a pitiful state.

During the war (1991-94) subversive acts were one the means of
putting pressure on Stepanakert. All water sources (river heads)
were located near Azeri villages. Or, rather those villages were
built near the sources.

Before Shushi was reclaimed by the Armenians, the Gaybalin filtering
station was blown up three times. People were forced to carry water
from springs under the hail of shells and bullets.

"We would reuse the same water 3 times. First we bathed our children,
then made the laundry in that water, then washed the floors with
it. Later the situation improved, but I am dreaming of a day, when
I don’t have to run home from work at 6 p.m. because it’s a ‘water
day’," says a resident of Stepanakert Anna Avagyan.