SPFA has existed in Gumri since 1990. Its objective there is to help the town recover from the earthquake that devastated it in 1988. We heard about this association through a project that allowed all the inhabitants of a district of Gumri, called ‘Ani’, to get access to running water 24 hours a day; we wanted to know more about it…

We had only just arrived when Aram Khatchatarian shared his adventure with us, interpreted by Lilith Haroutunian. Gagik Papikian, civil engineer for SPFA, took us off for a visit of the area.

        Gagik Papikian, Aram Khatchatarian and Lilith Haroutunian of SPFA Gumri

In 1997, faced with the poor access to running water that inhabitants of Gumri were enduring, SPFA decided to give priority to the improvement of the supplying of drinking water. Water used to be available only two hours per day in each district, when the water available in the mountains could have been enough to supply four towns like Gumri! Some buildings did not have access to running water at all. This situation was explained by the numerous leaks due to the poor quality of the pipe network, which was rebuilt too quickly after the earthquake, and also due to the overconsumption of water in houses.
 
Under the direction of Jacques Matossian, the project ‘Water and Health’ started in 1997 in the hospital for infectious disease in the Ani district with the support of the Water Agency Seine-Normandy. SPFA renovated the pipe network, built a 30,000 litre reservoir to supply the hospital 24 hours a day, and installed a ultrafiltering machine for drinking water. Residents could also benefit from these improvements thanks to an outside fountain. Gagik Papikian has kept this sophisticated machinery maintained since it was installed.

Between 2000 and 2003, SPFA installed six kilometres of pipes through the town to supply schools and hospitals - its priority being the supplying of public infrastructures.

        Ani district

Then, Jacques Matossian decided to take on the supplying of running water for inhabitants. For this ambitious project, he chose the Ani district and its 25,000 inhabitants wishing to make it a model for the rest of the town.

In 2001, he managed to harness the technical competencies of professionals from Aquassistance. Aquassistance is an association specialising in water supply. Then, he managed to put together the necessary funds with the help of the Foundation Armenianos Liechtenstein, the French government and the Water Agency Seine-Normandy. The work could now begin.

Under the direction of Dominique Chenille, the Aquassistance team conducted a ground study that revealed some important problems in the matter of loss in the network. The loss was 80% due to critical leaks because of the bad condition of pipes. Moreover, it turned out there was an awful waste of water in households. Installations were in bad conditions, and inhabitants were paying a fixed price per person for water. That led to bad consumption habits: flushes were running permanently, taps were left open the whole day to signal when the water was running in the district and to fill the bathtub that was used as a water tank. In a lot of buildings, inhabitants that were in upper levels had no water because of the overconsumption in lower levels. Altogether, the average consumption of water was about 1,000 to 1,500 litres per person a day (when the international standards are 100 litres).

Equipped with their metal detectors, the specialists of Aquassistance started to look for and suppress water leaks in the network. By 2003, the water network in the Ani district was entirely renovated.

Then, they had to convince the inhabitants of the district to install water metres in their houses. In order to do that, a public awareness campaign was raised in order to prove to the inhabitants that they would not pay more by checking their water consumption with simple means, and that the savings made would allow everyone to access water 24 hours a day. They managed to win them over and 10,000 individual water metres offered by Aquassistance were installed. The town hall also gave Aquassistance a list of 1,500 economically weak homes for which the installation was offered free of charge.

        In the streets of the Ani district

Thanks to this work, in 2005, the average consumption per inhabitant in the Ani district was divided by more than 10, and was then 100 litres per person per day. 20,000 to 30,000 cubic metres of water were saved this way everyday in the Ani district alone. This saved water could be then redistributed to the other districts of the town while waiting for the renovations of their network.

At last, the water supply is assured 24 hours a day in the Ani district, which is unique in Gumri and extremely rare in Armenia. This comfort represents a priceless luxury for the inhabitants. The gratitude of the inhabitants is shown with the rate of receipts of payments for bills: the water company counts only 5% of unpaid bills in the Ani district. The maintenance of the network in Ani is auto-financed by the payment of the inhabitants’ consumption.

At the end of 2005, despite everything, there was an important differential between the amount of water running in the district and the consumption registered on the water metres. By dint of search, an important leak was finally identified. Its repair allowed some water savings sufficient to extend the project to the districts of Mouch 1 and Mouch 2.
Good news: when we met Jacques Matossian in Stepanakert (High Karabakh), he informed us that he had just received a part of the 140,000 euro necessary via the Water Agency Seine-Normandy. This meant the building work could start.


In the meantime, no rest…
In 2006, SPFA made possible the supplying of water 24 hours a day in the hospital of Samariter in Gumri thanks to two 5,000 cubic metre water tanks, and installed an ultrafiltering machine for the new haemodialysis unit (which the association also finances).

The supply of water should not be reserved only for the inhabitants of towns. Armed with new financing, and with the same will to take action, Jacques Matossian and Dominique Chenille went this time in the direction of the mountains to install running water in Lernout in 2006, and in Djadour in 2007 (two villages close to Gumri).
In Lernout, they first had to build the route that would make possible the harnessing of water. Then, they installed a new reservoir and renovated the central pipe system. After that, it was up to the inhabitants to start digging themselves the trench in which to lay the connection to their house.

The water projects of SPFA look beyond the region of Gumri. In 2007 and 2008, the association began water projects in the villages of Khatchen and Khanbad, in the High Karabakh. That was again done in collaboration with Aquassistance.

Jacques Matossian would like all the Armenians to have access to running water. He knows that this dream might take a few more years before happening. He is looking for a volunteer project engineer to one day pass on the mission.

The Gumri Centre also conducts projects in the health and education domain. To be continued…

Contacts

SPFA (Solidarité Protestante France Arménie)
Email : Paris@spfa-armenie.org
Website : www.spfa-armenie.org
Telephone : +33 1 47 35 30 23
Fax : +33 1 53 80 19 49

Aquassistance
Email : contact@aquassistancenet.org
Website : http://aquassistance-en.blogspirit.com
Telephone : +33 1 58 18 50 36
Fax : +33 1 58 18 46 87

Gabrielle and François
(Translation: Yolène Dabreteau)