Water and Irrigation Services Enhancement Project (WISE)

dropped

The overall project development objective is to strengthen irrigation and water supply services in selected rural communities in Armenia. The project is centered on improving the sustainability and reliability of water services delivery to build and restore critical irrigation infrastructure, develop core policy and institutional functions for improved water services delivery in Armenia, and upgrading the climate forecasting, monitoring, and management capacity of Armenian water sector agencies. It will contribute toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) calling for universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water and sanitation services by 2030. Likewise, it will follow an integrated approach to construct and modernize infrastructure and sustainably manage water resources for enhanced irrigation and drinking water and sanitation service delivery in Armenia. The project will have three components. Component 1 on Water Sector Reform and Institutional Strengthening for Reliable and Sustainable Irrigation Services will have four subcomponents.Subcomponent 1.1 on strengthening national water resources policy and planning focuses on developing a comprehensive national water strategy and a ten-year national irrigation strategy. It involves examining existing legal frameworks and improving the legal and regulatory basis for water resource management in Armenia.Subcomponent 1.2 on improving irrigation sector management and service delivery includes reviewing tariffs and subsidies, transforming the Water Supply Agency into an efficient and customer-oriented irrigation service provider, institutional and organizational strengthening the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure (MTAI) and the Water Committee (WC), and establishing a National Irrigation Center of Excellence for training and research.Subcomponent 1.3 on institutional strengthening and capacity building of rural WSS services will support safely managed water supply services in targetted areas, including rural WSS sector policies and strategies and strengthening management capacities at the national and local levels. Component 2 on Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Enhancement has one subcomponent. Subcomponent 2.1 on rural water supply and sanitation infrastructure will finance rehabilitation and/or upgrading of existing rural WSS systems and new infrastructure to support the expansion of piped water and wastewater services in targeted rural areas. It will support the safe disposal of wastewater in the targeted areas to prevent water source contamination as well as promoting hygiene awareness programs and construction of sanitary toilets. The selection of water sources will depend on the finalization of the rural communities during project preparation, and it is possible that both groundwater sources and existing dam reservoirs may be considered.Component 3 on Modernizing Irrigation Infrastructure & System Management has two subcomponents.Subcomponent 3.1 on modernizing irrigation infrastructure will finance rehabilitation and modernization of selected irrigation systems at main, secondary, and tertiary canal levels. Activities include rehabilitation, and modernization of headworks, main canals, secondary and tertiary network levels currently managed jointly by WSA at the large main canal and reservoirs level and by WUAs at the secondary and tertiary distributary level. Subcomponent 3.2 on critical irrigation assets will rehabilitate some critical infrastructure under the responsibility of the WSA to ensure continuous provision of irrigation water to WUAs in priority command areas. According to needs highlighted by the WC, this will include rehabilitation of pressurized pipelines of Mkhchyan and Ranchpar pumping stations and outlet structures of 13 reservoirs identified by the WSA. Other emergency works also could be considered subject to budget availability.Component 4 on Project Management which will support project implementation, including implementation of civil works and related procurement and financial management (FM), compliance with agreed environmental and social management measures, and project monitoring and evaluation (M&E). This component will finance staff costs; coordination of the project-financed activities with other ongoing International Financial Institution (IFI) projects in the water sector; design, implementation, and reporting of baseline and project completion surveys; and the preparation of assessment studies (e.g., pre-feasibility and feasibility studies), detailed engineering designs, and construction supervision. The proposed project is fully aligned with Armenia Country Partnership Framework (CPF) 2019-2023 and with its Focus Area 3: Sustainable Management of Environmental and Natural Resources, CPF Objective 8: Improved management of natural resources, and CPF Objective 9: Enhanced climate-change resilience, water security, and disaster risk management capacity. In the CPF, the third focus area responds to Armenia’s stated goal of protecting the environment, improving the management and governance of natural resources, including water supply and sanitation for improving resilience and managing environmental and climatic risks. The proposed project is also aligned to Objective 1 (Improved performance in export-enabling sectors), which focuses on innovative digital platforms for more efficient supply chain management in agriculture and better irrigation and input use and modernization of small-scale irrigation systems.