Women living in Yeraskh know the price for the water.

Yeraskh is a bordering village in Ararat region, which for years struggled to resist the enemy’s attacks. For years the village survived without basic living conditions, deprived of natural life-giving potable water.

“Having water or seeing the water machine in the village used to be happiness to us” said the peasant women.

“A bucketful of water was to be sold by 30 drams and sometimes a limit of 2-3 water buckets per family was being imposed in the village. This was being done to suffice at lease minimal quantity of water to the whole village per visit of the water machine. Water for us was a kind of a “saint relic” and a glass of water poured in vain was a great loss for us”.

 
Sanitary conditions became unbearable due to the absence of water and widely spread malaria during those years took lives of more than 18 village residents. Long-cherished and unrealistic dream of having water became a reality in 2010 in the frameworks of water supply and sewerage system program by Asian Development Bank (ADB). The interviewed people describe this program as a miracle.

“I can’t transfer the feelings when we opened the faucet and saw the running water. My kids have seen nothing of a kind. Having water in the house, drinking pure and cold water was just a miracle for us”, tell the villagers with a smile on their faces.

It is already two years the village is provided with 24 hour potable water. “People easily get accustomed to good conditions and now having no water for an hour creates lots of problems for the households. A lot of noise and worries rise when the water system gets damaged” says the village municipality employee Nvard Hovhannisyan. In fact, lack of water creates troubles for housekeepers especially this is why women were active in expressing their words of gratitude to the charitable organization who solved the long-lasting and disturbing water issue for them. Still, the village faces another issue:

“Our village used to have its water engineer who was responsible to fix the problems. Now the “Hayjrmoukh” (Armenian Water Sewerage Company) engineer based in Vayk city has to visit the village and eliminate the problem, which sometimes event takes days. Even minor problems such as damage of water meter or the pipeline should be fixed by this engineer who might be able to visit the village days after the problem occurs. Years ago, when the village mayor was in charge of the water supply, the local engineer was responsible for all troubleshooting, no problem was being delayed and minor issues didn’t create major disturbances,” said the women.

Ninel Hovhannisyan