The Prime Minister of Armenia announced the start of Vedi water reservoir construction costing EUR 90 mln

ArmInfo. Vedi water reservoir project is  launched in Armenia to secure reliable irrigation of 700 Ha of Ararat valley lands. This was written  by Karen Karapetyan, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia at his FB page.

According to Karapetyan, the Vedi reservoire  with its capacity of 29 mln cubic meters  of water will be the first reservoire builded from the  ground up in the history of Independent Armenia. The project implementation will also have an important meaning in  respect to the recovery of environmental balance of Sevan  lake. " The project of Vedi reservoir  costruction costing at EUR 90 mln is implemented within  co- financing of the French Development Agency and Armenia Government." Armenian Prime Minister mentioned. 

The project is developed by French Artelia Eau & Environment  and Belgian SHER Ingenieurs- Conseils, together with Djrtuk LLC. The construction is implemented by Armenia Company of Sahakyanshin ( the same Company has been occupied in the Marmarik reservoir rehabilitiation project completed in April 2012), and Iranian Consortium of Pega Construбtion. The project implementation will open 250 new jobs.  The Vedi reservoir construction project will cost at EUR 90 mln, EUR 75 mln of which is the loan of French Development Agency, and EUR 15 mln is the concurrent  financing share of Armenian state budget.

To mention, the construction of this water reservoir has an important meaning of Armenia. Earlier Turkey stated its plans to build up water reservoirs on Araks rive, which contains appropriate risks for Armenian side in respect to irrigation water. According the information, shared with ArmInfo earlier by Arsen Haroutyunyan, the Chairman of the Water Resources State Committee under the Ministry of Energy Infrustructures and Natural Resources, Armenia could not  rule out  and exclude such risks. However, the Vedi water resoervoire  will give an option to soften Turkish water expansion. " Now the water passing through Armenian territory will be accumulated at Vedi reservoir," the State Committee head mentioned.

There are about 90 water reservoirs in Armenian for today, having different capacities., and there is an essential progress planned for the sphere in upcoming five years. Another two projects on Eghvard and Mastarin water reservoirs are planned to implement as well.