Irrigation Dam Safety

closed

Three complete dam failures occurred in Armenia in 1974, 1979, and 1994 respectively. All reported accidents could have been avoided if proper surveillance and operation and Maintenance procedures were in place. Such observations suggest that other failures cannot be rules out if the situation of dam safety in Armenia is allowed to remain out of control. Considering that no dam is reported to have a functioning instrumentation system and that country-wide around 460,000 people are at risk, the situation should be regarded as an emergency. Accordingly, the Dam Safety Project aims to protect the population and the socio-economic infrastructure downstream of the dams facing the highest risk of failure. This project has two main components. The first component supports repair work on primary irrigation dams including design and supervision, field tests, civil works, hydraulic steel structures. Rehabilitation consists of upstream protection works, spillway structural repairs, leakage reduction, and irrigation/bottom outlet repair. The second component prepares, operates, and supervises dam safety plans for operation and maintenance and an emergency preparedness plan; finances dam safety site installations, which include instruments and monitoring devices and early warning systems; strengthens the capacity of the Dam Maintenance Enterprise; and supports safety investigations into all remaining dams in Armenia.