Asatryan VardanPhD, Scientific researcher at Institute of hydroecology and ichthyology of SCZHE NAS, Armenia

Tbilisi 2016

BSH International Thematic Workshop on "Resource Efficiency & Environment - Black Sea Region Challenges"

Content Introduction Transboundary water resources Lake Sevan and spheres of possible cooperation Climate change effect on surface waters Groundwater and fish farming links Problems of implementation of water monitoring

according to EU WFD demands

•Average elevation of territory - 1825m a.s.l.

•82% of territory is slopes

•Area - about 30.000sqr km

• The biggest reservoir of freshwater in

South Caucasus region – Lake Sevan

•Armenia has sufficient water resources to

supply approximately 3,100 cubic meters

per capita/year

•The overall river flow (originating within

the country) has been estimated at 6.8

billion cubic meters

Transboundary rivers

Armenia’s water monitoring network

Transboundary water resources issues Existing agreements on transboundary waters are silent with regard to

groundwater issues Major water infrastructure plans by Kura-Araks basin countries to be

used for irrigation, water supply, and hydropower are a major government concern for other riparian countries because of the potential impacts.

Lack of formal cooperation between all the riparian countries and lack of legal framework for transboundary cooperation are major limitations for making progress on this front.

Wastewater collection and treatment systems are not sufficiently provided and operational

Lake Sevan and spheres of possible cooperation

•Morphological changes of littoral zone, riverbeds and river mouths

•Succession in biodiversity

•Worsening of water quality

Climate change effect on surface waters

Temperatures have increased by 0.85°C and precipitation has decreased by 6 percent in Armenia over the past 80 years.

The largest changes in precipitation are expected at altitudes higher than 1,700 meters, which are the main areas of river flow formation

The impacts of climate change will be particularly severe for Lake Sevan.

Climate change is also likely to decrease water supply in transboundary basins (decrease by 45–65 % in the Khrami-Debed basin (Armenia/Georgia) and by 59–72 % in the Aghstev basin (Armenia/Azerbaijan) by the end of the century (UNDP 2011)

Groundwater and fish farming links Main groundwater resources of Armenia are accumulated in Ararat

valley, which is the largest fish farming zone due to the rich supply of artesian groundwater of high quality and low cost

The fishery sector is of strategic importance to the Armenian economy.

Due to artesian groundwater depletion, the conflicts with other artesian groundwater uses—irrigation, domestic, industrial, and cooling waters—are increasing.

Increasing water discharge from fish farms is overloading the drainage network, causing higher operation and maintenance costs, waterlogging, soil salinization, and alkalization.

The situation in the Ararat valley is indicative of the larger problems with respect to weak monitoring and absence of RBMPs in Armenia

Location of Ararat valley

Development of RBMP’s in Armenia has huge significancefor further improvementof water monitoring

• There are growing concerns with respect to the declining quality of water in the country

• From 2008 to 2012, the total wastewater volume doubled (from 375 million to 813 MCM per year), and untreated discharge increased seven times (from 42 million to 307 MCM per year)

• More needs to be done with respect to water quality, including enhancing hydrobiological monitoring and monitoring of the EU Water framework directive’s pollutant priorities.

• Sustainable hydrobiological monitoring implemented only in Lake Sevan basin

• There is a necessity for development of multimetric indices for different river basins in all countries of BS region to meet the requirements of EU WFD and for harmonization of monitoring outputs within the countries.