Tapping Resources, WECF project Armenië

Armoede bestrijding, biologische landbouw en verbetering van hygiene en water voroziening in Armenië

As a part of the 4 year TMF project “Tapping resources” granted by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Yerevan-based NGO “Armenian Women for Health and a Healthy Environment” (AWHHE) in cooperation with WECF will conduct activities aimed at poverty reduction through improved water and sanitation, waste management, organic farming and increased community participation in communal development. The joint project aims at working towards realization of – among others – the Millennium Development Goals 7 (environmental sustainability, esp. water) and 5 (improvement of maternal health) on a concrete local level.

Activities will be conducted in three villages in the vicinity of the capital Yerevan: Hayanist, Dzorakhbiur in Ararat province (marz) and Fontan in Kotayk province (marz). In February and March 2004, a socio-economical and gender survey has been conducted in these villages in order to clarify the current situation and to assess the villagers’ most urgent needs and interests. Armenia has managed to recover partially from the severe economic crisis caused by the break-up of the Soviet Union and war with Azerbaijan over Karabakh (1991-1994), but the positive effects of an ambitious IMF-sponsored economic liberalization program that resulted in positive growth rates in 1995-2003 are mostly felt in the countries capital Yerevan, while rural areas still suffer severely from the post-soviet crisis. The fruit growers of Dzorakhbiur, for example, lost their orchards during the crisis. War is over, but there are still no trees, because people are too poor to plant new trees and pay the energy for pumps needed for irrigation. The TMF-project partners will address the problem and find sustainable solutions together with the farmers and with the support of international experts.



Although Armenia is rich in water and the villages have their own springs or wells, drinking water is not always available for the population and in certain cases is of insufficient quality to be used for drinking. Again, poverty plays a role when the villagers of Fontan cannot afford to even pay the energy necessary to make the pump work that pumps drinking water from the spring to their village. In Dzorakhbjur the spring water is contaminated from improper waste disposal, human fecal bacteria from pit latrines and insufficient caption of the spring itself. Eco-san toilets will make an important contribution to solve this problem.
The project aims at creating a replicable model for finding and implementing multi-stakeholder informed solutions to acute problems. The constant involvement of the villagers themselves is thus an important asset of the project.

AWHHE will implement pilot demonstration projects in the three villages to address urgent problems and needs. A focus will be on involving women in project implementation and local decision-making. The demonstration projects will help to identify legislative, institutional and cultural barriers, as well as catalysts and appropriate technologies. The lessons will be used to replicate and upscale the results and prepare recommendations for national and international policy making, in particular in reaching the Millennium Development Goals. The international policy work will be carried out within the framework of the WSSD partnership Women for Water, Water for Women, of which WECF is one of the funding members.

New publication: Socio-Economic and Gender Survey of Hayanist, Fantan and Dzorahbyur in Armenia.

New publication: Improvement of environmental safety in rural Armenia.

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