Dec 2022 – Dec 2025 Water for Life: Improving Governance for Accessible Water Resources

The objective of the proposed project is to contribute to improve citizens’ access to irrigation water resources in Ararat valley of Armenia through fostering citizen engagement and social accountability in water governance.

The project will pursue the rights of about 300 000 residents in about 100 settlements who experience severe water shortage in the result of poor governance and aggravated by climate change. The project will specifically target Water Users Associations (WUAs) who are the closest institutional link to the citizens in the water governance chain. By capacity development and mobilization of active citizen groups, WUAs of the target area will be held accountable for their practices and supported to improve them. For water related policy issues that are under national competence, citizens and the WUAs will advocate jointly.

More specifically, the scope of the proposed project encompasses the following:

1. Generating accurate and up-to-date data about existing water resources in the target area (including information about its distribution, losses, reasons of scarcity, etc.);
2. Capacity development of 4 WUAs to improve management practices and accountability;
3. Mobilization and training of local activists, creation of Citizen Task Force (CTF), establishing mechanisms for monitoring water management practices. 
4. Development and advocating changes for more efficient water usage jointly by WUAs and CTFs on institutional and practical level;

Knowledge sharing with WUAs and stakeholders (including state Water Committee) from other regions of Armenia for jointly promoting social accountability in water sector

Beneficiaries: 4 Water User Associations, 300,000 water users.

Funding: World Bank

Implementation: The Urban Foundation for Sustainable Development