Prior to 1999, proper surveillance and maintenance procedures were lacking for 87 dams in Armenia. As a result, about 34 percent of all irrigated land in Armenia—or 68,000 hectares—was not getting reliable irrigation. Agriculture contributes 18 percent of Armenia’s gross domestic product and employs about 46 percent of its labor force—many of whom were suffering from substandard irrigation. More importantly, there was a high possibility of dam failure, which would result in devastation downstream. For this reason, 360,000 people and 680 square kilometers of land and were considered at risk.
IDA’s initial Dam Safety Project aimed to tackle this challenge head-on by:
- Immediately rehabilitating the 20 dams considered to be at highest risk, and
- Establishing dam-safety measures, such as setting up instrumentation and monitoring devices, early warning systems, and telecommunications systems.
This first project led to a second Dam Safety Project in 2004, which extended the program to the entire country and included all other dams at risk and improved dam safety measures.
Over 500,000 people (more than 15 percent of the population) living downstream of these rehabilitated dams are now safe. Likewise, Aremenia’s infrastructure located downstream is no longer considered at risk.
Highlights:
- Rehabilitated 69 (plus five ongoing) out of 87 dams in the entire country,
- Developed Emergency Preparedness Plans for all sites,
- Installed Emergency Warning Systems in 175 villages,
- Strengthened the capacity of the Emergency Management Agency, which now conducts effective outreach campaigns; and strengthened the Dam Maintenance Enterprise,
- Secured a reliable source of irrigation water supply for the farmers, and
- Ultimately secured the at-risk locations downstream, including varied socioeconomic infrastructure.
IDA offered prolonged support, during an 8-year period from 1999 to 2008. It contributed $26.6 million under the Irrigation and Dam Safety Project and $6.75 million under the Irrigation and Dam Safety II Project, which began in 2004.
Institutional reform of the agricultural water sub-sector is ongoing in Armenia, which could have implications for the country’s system of dams. It is important for the Government to continue to dedicate the necessary resources to managing its dam system. The management of smaller dams should be transferred to Water Users Federations and Associations as soon as they are geared up in terms of financial and technical capacity.
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