ArmInfo.Armenian government officials and representatives of the German KfW Bank have officially launched the Kaps Reservoir construction project, reported the press office of Armenia's Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure.
Armenia's Vice-Premier Tigran Khachatryan said that the construction project is strategically important for Armenia as it will solve the irrigation problem in the central and western parts of the Shirak plain, facilitate agricultural development and effective water resource management.
"The new reservoir will enable irrigation of new areas, and we will save much electric energy," Minister Gnel Sanosyan said. Work at the second stage of the project is in progress, he added.
The project is being funded on a KfW-issued loan, with Armenian government's share. The project budget is EUR 95.2mln, with the KfW loan being EUR 68.5mln.
The first stage is the construction of a reservoir with a capacity of 25mln cubic meters, which will be brought up to 60mln cubic meters. The China-based Shanxi Construction Investment Group company will implement the construction project. Available water-supply to the Shirak and Akhuryan right-bank main canals and to about 17,000 hectares of lands will be improved. Mechanical irrigation of 2,280 hectares of lands will be replaced with gravity-flow irrigation, which will save 1.3mln kwh of electric energy yearly.
The new reservoir with a capacity of 60mln cubic meters will enable the area of irrigated lands in Shirak to be brought up to 920 hectares. In Talin, Aragatsotn province, mechanical irrigation of 6,600 hectares of land will be replaced with gravity-flow irrigation, which will save 11mln kwh of electric energy yearly. The Territorial Development Fund of Armenia is implementing the programme.
A EUR 70mln loan agreement with the KfW Bank took effect on June 29, 2019. The deadline was December 30, 2019, but a new deadline, June 30, 2024, was set.
