Bringing Water to Syunik’s Border Villages Background: The villages of Alvank and Shvanidzor are located in the Meghri region at the border with Iran. The total population of the villages is 692 inhabitants. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and its economic system, water problems became acute due to the absence of resources and lack of maintenance.

In the former Persian sphere of influence, traditionally in the areas with limited water resource, people constructed underground water systems called “chaheriz”. These systems were used for human consumption, cultivation and cattle. In the Soviet period the systems were mostly abandoned and the local capacities for their maintenance and construction were nearly lost. Due to the bad condition of the chaherizes, the villages lack proper water supply, and limits their opportunities to develop agriculture and animal husbandry.

The extreme deterioration of the existing water network in these isolated communities has created an unsafe, unhealthy and unlivable situation. This results in the deterioration of hygienic conditions and contributes to the spread of water-borne diseases. Although the entire region – Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Armenia – has depended on such wells and tunnels, they are only useful and functional if given proper and regular cleaning and maintenance to ensure a continued water supply. These networks have long existed, in some form, in varying states of disrepair in these two villages. They continue to be utilized, although not regularly and not as a source of clean water.