Yeghvard water reservoir will not be built.

The construction of Yeghvard reservoir launched in 1983, during the Soviet era and it has been underway ever since. In 1998-1999, the construction stopped and resumed in 2012 when the Armenian government applied to the Japanese government requesting a loan aid program. The Armenian government highlighted the importance of the reservoir in several points: water savings from Lake Sevan at an annual rate of 50 million cubic meters; an annual storage of 90 million cubic meters of water; irrigated lands increased by 3000 hectares, etc.

Moreover, it was planned to create a recreation area near this reservoir. The mayor of Yeghvard, Norik Sargsyan is convinced that if the reservoir functioned, the local climate would also change. “Yeghvard would become a recreation area. Being closer to the capital than Lake Sevan, it would be of shorter distance for the summer residents. Besides, in Lake Sevan the resort season is 1-2 months, while here we have 6 months”, said Sargsyan.

In the 2013 presidential election campaign, Serzh Sargsyan also promised to build the reservoir. In a meeting with the residents of Yeghvard, Serzh Sargsyan said:

“We are going to build such important objects as Yeghvard, Kaps and Vedi reservoirs. The constructive work of the reservoirs will start in 2013-2014. We have already found funding for these projects. Water is a treasure that we should use sparingly and preserve for the future generations.”

More than five years have passed since this announcement, but the reservoir has not been built or even designed yet. Moreover, in response to our inquiry, the Ministry of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources informed that “the implementation of the project was considered inexpedient and it was stopped for an indefinite period of time.”

Thus, this project, launched in 1983, highlighted by the government as important, and promised to be built by Serzh Sargsyan himself, has never been implemented and will not be in the near future.

P.S. it should be noted that within the scope of our investigation, in response to our first inquiry the Deputy Minister of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources Haik Harutyunyan, violating the law on “Freedom of Information”, tried to present the future of the reservoir as an official secret. However, after learning about our intention to apply to the court, the acting Chief of Staff of the Ministry responded to our inquiry.