Towards integrated water resources management in Armenia

Transcription

1 Sustainable Development and Planning II, Vol Towards integrated water resources management in Armenia M. Vardanyan 1, T. Lennaerts 2, A. Schultz 2, L. Harutyunyan 2 & V. Tonoyan 2 1 Office of Economic Restructuring and Energy, USAID, Armenia 2 USAID Program for Institutional and Regulatory Strengthening of Water Management in Armenia, PA Consulting Group, Armenia Abstract The Republic of Armenia has made good progress in the transition from a centrally planned to a market economy. The many state organizations that were previously involved in providing water management services in the drinking water, hydropower and irrigation sectors have been consolidated into autonomous and accountable private, public or cooperative organizations, supported by an improving legal framework and an emerging regulatory capacity. This process has already led to improvements in operational performance. To activate overall water resources management, the Water Resources Management Agency (WRMA) and its five River Basin Management Organizations (BMOs) were recently established under the Ministry of Nature Protection (MNP), which has a broad natural resources mandate. In this paper, it is argued that the current single biggest challenge of the MNP is to revitalize water resources monitoring, water use permitting and enforcement, which will be essential for future basin planning and management. This will require that the MNP streamline cooperation among its various monitoring and enforcement agencies and the WRMA/BMOs. At the same time, financial mechanisms need to be designed to finance these basic water resources management needs, so that they are sustainable. These priority measures are now being developed in the first National Water Program (NWP). Keywords: Armenia, water resources management, water management agencies, legal and institutional reform, national water program.

2 774 Sustainable Development and Planning II, Vol. 1 1 Introduction 1.1 Setting Armenia is a small, landlocked country in the Southern Caucasus with an area of nearly 30,000 km 2 and a population of about 3 million. Turkey lies to the west, Georgia to the north, Iran to the south, and Azerbaijan to the east (Figure 1). The borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan are currently closed. A third of the population lives in the capital Yerevan. The country is filled with mountain ranges and plateaus with valleys in between. About 75% of the country is situated at more than 1,500 meters (m) above sea level. The climate is continental with cold winters and warm and dry summers. Average annual precipitation varies from 1,000 mm in the high mountains to 300 mm in the wide and fertile Ararat Valley, which forms the southwestern border with Turkey. Figure 1: Southern Caucasus region. 1.2 Socio-economic development Since 1994, Armenia has been among the most advanced reformist countries in the former Soviet Union. Currently the GDP has almost reached its 1990 level. During the last several years, GDP growth was well above 10% annually. Per capita income in 2003 is estimated at US$ 950 (Atlas method). Factors that contributed to economic growth include: reforms in the electricity sector, growth in exports in a few sectors (diamonds, metals, electricity, processed food), transfers from the Diaspora that fuelled investments and housing construction, and a major program of international assistance. However, the high levels of economic growth have not yet made up for jobs lost to downsizing or closure of traditional, Soviet era enterprises. Over one-third of the country s workers are unemployed. Armenia s public expenditure budget will remain tight in the medium term. In 2004 the state budget amounted to only US$ 0.8 billion. The country s economic future depends on the government s

3 Sustainable Development and Planning II, Vol ability to improve the environment for private sector development, particularly in the industrial sector to sustain the current high economic growth rates, and create jobs to reduce poverty and expand exports. Water resources play an important role in the economic development of Armenia. Hydropower accounts for 20% of total electricity production. Irrigation accounts for about 80% of total agricultural production, which in turn accounts for almost 25% of GDP. 1.3 Water resources Most of the rivers in Armenia are small and rapid running. They are grouped in 14 main river basins. The renewable surface water resources amount to 7.2 BCM/year. Armenia possesses considerable renewable groundwater resources, which play an important role in the overall water balance. Groundwater is the source for about 96% of the water used for drinking purposes. Deep groundwater originating within Armenia accounts for almost 1 BCM/year. This constitutes a strategic water reserve for the country. Important deep and artesian groundwater resources are found in the Ararat Valley. If all water resources are considered, Armenia has more than 3,000 cubic meters per capita per year (m3/c/year). Although Armenia is certainly not "water-stressed", there are spatial imbalances of Armenia s water resource base. There is also significant annual and seasonal variability in runoff of the rivers. About 55% of run-off occurs in the spring months when rainfall and snowmelt is highest. This severe variability causes occasional flooding in spring and local drought conditions in summer. To address seasonal variations of river runoff, the country has built 79 dams with a total reservoir capacity of 1.1 BCM. Most of these dams are used for irrigation. Armenia s only multi-year water storage is Lake Sevan. The lake, which is situated at an elevation of almost 1,900 m above sea level, covers an area of about 1,200 km 2 and has a volume of approximately 33 BCM. Through its regulated surface outflow into the Hrazdan River, the lake s waters provide a significant amount of hydropower and irrigation to croplands in the Ararat Valley. Mainly due to excessive water utilization, the original level of Lake Sevan decreased substantially, increasing the threat of eutrophication and largely depleting the lake s storage capacity as a strategic water reserve for multipurpose use. 1.4 Water uses Historical trends of water withdrawals for the main intake uses are presented in Figure 2. The figure shows a steady decline in the total water withdrawals for these uses since independence. Between 1989 and 2004, water withdrawal experienced a sharp decline from 3.9 BCM to 1.7 BCM. Industry and irrigation water experienced the most pronounced decline, 63% and 57% respectively. Irrigation accounted, and still accounts, for approximately 70% of the total surface and groundwater withdrawal in Armenia. The average water intake per ha per year amounts to 8,000 m3. About 40% of the irrigation area depends

4 776 Sustainable Development and Planning II, Vol. 1 mostly on high-lift pumping, with pumping lifts of 100 to 500 m. The actually irrigated area amounted to more that 300,000 ha in 1985 and has declined to about 135,000 ha at present. Major factors that have contributed to this decline are the widespread deterioration of the irrigation conveyance systems, high costs of pumping, the disintegration of the former large collective farms into many small private farms (1 to 2 ha), and drainage problems, particularly in the Ararat Valley where groundwater tables are shallow. In '000 cubic meters Irrigation Domestic and municipal Industrial (self-supplied) Figure 2: Historical trends of water withdrawal. Domestic and industrial water use has also declined since independence, as a result of a decline in economic activity and, more recently, metering and other management measures. Many sewerage systems are old and don t function adequately because of their age and the lack of maintenance. Therefore, most wastewaters are discharged untreated into rivers. 1.5 Water quality Pollution of Armenia s rivers was extensive during the Soviet period. The current extent of pollution of Armenia s surface waters is not known with certainty because monitoring programs have been hampered by low operational budgets. IWACO et al. [2] conclude on the basis of available data and the implementation of a crash water-quality monitoring program that the water quality conditions of the rivers have improved substantially as a result of the closure of a large part of the traditional industrial enterprises and the decline in irrigated agriculture. The chemical parameters in the surface water were within acceptable limits, except for a few locations downstream of the main cities. However, the exceedances were not considered significant. These findings, if confirmed, will have important implications for water management in Armenia, including the prioritisation of investments.

5 Sustainable Development and Planning II, Vol Review of water resources management 2.1 Legal framework With the assistance of USAID, Armenia adopted in 2002 a new, comprehensive National Water Code [3]. The Water Code shows the way forward for water resources management, in line with international best practice. The Water Code declares Armenian water resources as state property, its use and disposal controlled through economic instruments, employing water use permits to be issued and enforced on the basis of monitoring information, contained in a computerized National Water Cadastre. Important innovations in the Water Code strengthen the basin-oriented principles of water resources management and the importance of public awareness and participation. This has resulted already in the consolidation of Armenia s 14 main river basins into five primary basins at which planning and management functions will be directed (Figure 3). Figure 3: Principal river basins for planning and management. A National Water Program (NWP) will provide the strategy and time-phased action program for achieving the different aspects of the Code. The Water Code has, and the NWP will benefit from, the comprehensive knowledge base that has been developed since 1995 with the help of international organizations, including the Lake Sevan Action Program [5], National Environmental Action Plan [4],

6 778 Sustainable Development and Planning II, Vol. 1 Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) Study [1], Sustainable Water Resources Management in Armenia ( ), and Water Management in the South Caucasus ( ). Nevertheless, this legal framework is new and fresh, endeavours to be quite comprehensive, and will undoubtedly face many challenges as its implementation moves forward. Of overriding importance is the concern that the NWP be financially sustainable. Another major concern has to do with the coherence and consistency among the many existing legal documents. This has led to some confusion in the institutional arrangements. 2.2 Institutional setting The new Water Code established the Water Resources Management Agency (WRMA) and its five Basin Management Organizations (BMOs), which must become the principal authorities for integrated water resources planning and management. The WRMA is placed under the Ministry of Nature Protection (MNP), which has a broad natural resources mandate, including environmental protection. The MNP also has responsibilities for several other essential water resources management tasks, including the formulation of policies and regulations, water resources monitoring, and the assurance of compliance with regulations and water use permit conditions. The State Committee for Water Systems (SCWS) and the Public Sector Regulatory Commission (PSRC) were established to manage and regulate the natural monopolies in the provision of operational services in irrigation, hydropower, and municipal water supply and wastewater collection, treatment and disposal. Finally, the Water Code also established the National Water Council (NWC), which is the highest advisory body in the area of matters related to water use and protection. Under the NWC, a Dispute Resolution Commission is organized for resolving disputes related to water use permits. As a result, Armenia has separated responsibilities for the following three important water management functions: the overall management of water resources, the management of sectoral water services, and environmental protection. It also has separated the management, regulatory and operational functions in the provision of sectoral water services. Most of the newly established institutions require substantial institutional strengthening and capacity building to enable them to implement the tasks assigned to them in the legal framework. Among other considerations, the NWC can be strengthened to serve as a focal point with the political mandate to synthesize the differing positions and conflicting interests of all water agencies. Another issue is the existing gaps, overlaps and inconsistencies in authorities, responsibilities and tasks among the new and older institutions. A third issue is the lack of coordination and cooperation, including data and information exchange, among the various institutions, in particular at the basin level. 2.3 Overall water resources management Progress lags in overall water resources management, which involves water resources monitoring, national water planning and coordination, integrated river

7 Sustainable Development and Planning II, Vol basin planning and management, water use permits, and compliance assurance and enforcement of regulations and permit conditions, which are all responsibilities of agencies under the MNP. The fulfilment of these activities has been suffering from lack of adequate budgets. Water resources monitoring is fragmented, and to some degree duplicated among several agencies. To a large degree, the monitoring is conducted according to methods and procedures from Soviet times, albeit at a much lower level of activity. Also the existing National Water Cadastre is incomplete and fragmented. As a result, the availability and the quality of the collected data have declined to the point that the data are considered unfit for planning and management. The water use permits govern water withdrawals from and pollution discharges into surface waters (rivers, lakes) and groundwater [6]. Currently water use permits are issued by the WRMA, supported by the BMOs. Since the adoption of the new Water Code in 2002, about 500 water use permits have been issued by the WRMA. These include new permits and the renewal of existing permits. The experiences so far suggest that the implementation and enforcement of the water use permitting system has been constrained by deficiencies in permitting regulations and guidelines, insufficient cooperation among agencies of the MNP in the processes of issuance of permits and the assurance of compliance with permit conditions, and capabilities of agencies and their staff. The inspection of water users to ensure compliance with regulations and permit conditions is fragmented between the WRMA/BMOs and the State Environmental Inspectorate (SEI), also under the MNP. The SEI has weakened considerably during the last several years. The methods, procedures and standards used have little changed since Soviet times [6]. Moreover, there seems to be virtually no cooperation or even information exchange between the SEI and the surface water quality monitoring organizations. Few fines and penalties are being applied or paid for non-compliance, and virtually no legal action has been taken against those who have not paid their fines. Thus, an accurate estimate of current water use cannot be made. Moreover, there is little knowledge as to which organizations or persons are in compliance with permit conditions. 2.4 Sectoral water management Good restructuring progress has been made in sectoral water management, supported by a legal framework that has separated the management, regulatory and operational functions in the provision of water services in the irrigation, hydropower, and municipal water supply and wastewater collection, treatment, and disposal. The many state organizations that were previously involved in these services have been largely restructured and consolidated into autonomous and accountable private, public or cooperative organizations. The low level of activities in overall water resources management seems not to have negatively affected progress in the sectoral water services. Nevertheless, the improvement of their operational performance, particularly in irrigation and municipal water services, has been modest until now, mainly due to inadequate funding mechanisms for making the required investments. However, this issue is

8 780 Sustainable Development and Planning II, Vol. 1 now being addressed with the assistance of various institutional lenders, donors and the private sector. One of the pressing issues in the irrigation sector is the sustainability of a substantial part of the remaining irrigation and drainage (I&D) systems, in particular the schemes that depend on high-lift pumping for their water supply. Some of these schemes may be converted to gravity supply. Most pumped schemes, however, will continue to represent a heavy and likely unsustainable financial burden on the Government and the users. The operation and maintenance costs amount to more than US$100/1,000m3 (US$500/ha) for highlift pumped schemes. These costs are higher than the incremental income of the farmers from irrigation, which may range from US$200/ha to US$400/ha. A further severe reduction of the currently irrigated area of 135,000 ha is likely, particularly if the Government would decide to stop subsidizing irrigation. 2.5 Transboundary water management The new Water Code recognizes the importance of transboundary cooperation and empowers the Commission on Transboundary Water Resources to address transboundary issues with similar organizations in neighbouring countries. A number of bilateral treaties bind Armenia with respect to the development and use of international waters. A basic requirement for the implementation of these treaties is that proper monitoring and information exchange programs on water flows and water quality are in place [7]. This basic requirement is not yet met, despite the various donor-supported transboundary projects, which mostly have been supporting workshops and legal, policy and planning activities. As a result, hard facts on water quantity and water quality issues between the countries are scarce. 3 Priorities for the National Water Program 3.1 Needs and limitations The National Water Code requires the preparation of the first National Water Program (NWP), which will provide the foundation for all water management activities in the country. The Code also calls for annual updating of the NWP, with approval of the National Assembly. The preparation of a NWP is a substantial undertaking, requiring the efforts of many different experts, providing data, information and analysis in a variety of fields. The preparation of a NWP is heavily dependent upon availability of reliable data and information. At the moment, recent and reliable data on current water availability, water quality and water usage do not exist. In addition, there are limitations on capability and expertise, within government agencies, to perform some of the needed studies and analyses required for the NWP. Fortunately, Armenia doesn t face serious overall water management problems in terms of water shortages, water quality or sectoral competition for water (see above). The previous sections indicate that Armenia is blessed with

9 Sustainable Development and Planning II, Vol sufficient water resources to serve its current and foreseeable needs. Renewable surface water and groundwater supplies average over 8 BCM/y, whereas total usage reduced from about 4 BCM/y in the late 80s to about 1.7 BCM/y at present. Moreover, the reduction in water use was accompanied by a remarkable improvement in water quality due to the decline in industrial and agricultural output. Thus, there seems no pressing need in the short term for a more holistic integrated approach to water resources management, including the preparation of IWRM plans for the aforementioned five river basins as part of the NWP. The current lack of stress in the water sector provides an opportunity for establishing the right framework for managing the water resources in Armenia for all future needs, including environmental considerations. In this connection, key priorities are the revitalization of the basic water resources management tasks of water resources monitoring, water use permitting, and the assurance of compliance with regulations and permit conditions. With the re-vitalization of these essential tasks, the basic data will become available to enable any meaningful IWRM planning in, say, five years from now, when there will be a real demand for basin planning and management if the economy of Armenia keeps growing at its current high rate. The revitalization of these basic tasks has technical, institutional and financial requirements, which also need to be addressed in the NWP. The NWP will guide water resources management in Armenia, up until the time when the WRMA and BMOs will be in a strengthened position, and capable of carrying out all their responsibilities under the Water Code in cooperation with the monitoring organizations, enforcement organizations, and the sectoral water supply services. Subsequently, the WRMA and the BMOs, working in concert, will play a key role in the periodic updating of the NWP, including, IWRM planning at the basin level when there is a need for such plans. 3.2 Priorities for the National Water Program Taking into account the above described issues, needs and limitations, the following priorities will be addressed in Armenia s first NWP. Re-design and revitalization of monitoring programs of water resources; Strengthening of water use permitting for water withdrawals and pollution discharges; Improvement of compliance assurance and enforcement of regulations and water use permit conditions; Development of the National Water Cadastre Information System; Assessment of the future of irrigation in Armenia; Development of planning and analytical capacity; Development of cooperative basin management measures; Development of financing mechanisms for water resources management; Institutional needs assessment for the streamlining of agencies involved in the water sector;

10 782 Sustainable Development and Planning II, Vol. 1 Harmonization and consolidation of laws and other legal instruments; Implementation of the Lake Sevan Action Plan; Establishment of water quality management program; Protection of environmentally sensitive zones; Assessment of drainage requirements in areas reverted to marshes in the Ararat Valley. References [1] World Bank, Towards Integrated Water Resources Management. Technical Paper. Armenia. [2] IWACO et al, Integrated Water Resources Management Planning. Stage II Final Technical Report. Integrated Water Resources Management Plan Armenian. Funded by World Bank. Armenia. [3] Government of Armenia, Water Code of the Republic of Armenia. Official Bulletin of the Republic of Armenia. [4] World Bank, National Environnemental Action Plan. Main Report and various working group reports. Armenia. [5] World Bank, Lake Sevan Action Plan. Armenia. [6] ARD, Water Use Permitting Guidelines and Water Resources Fees Strategy, Ministry of Nature Protection. Sustainable Water Resources Management Project in Armenia, Funded by USAID. Armenia. [7] DAI, Water Management in the South Caucasus. Final Report. Funded by USAID. Armenia.