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water resources in the Ararat valley, using different
development and climate change scenarios. The
findings and recommendations of the assessment
were presented to the Armenian government and
national/international stakeholders in 2014. The
Armenian government adopted two decisions
aimed at the sustainable management of ground
water resources in the Ararat valley: Decision No.
340-N (adopted on April 3, 2014) on “Approval
of the procedure for issuing water use permits for
illegally-operated and also non-operated wells,
as well as on the procedure for liquidation and
conservation of such wells“ and Protocol Decision
(adopted on June 26, 2014) on “Approval of the
terms of reference for introducing centralised,
automated management system for water use in the
Ararat valley“ (ARLIS 2015).
The development of the Southern Basin Management
Plan is in progress, and the draft plan should be
submitted to the Armenian government in 2015
(USAID 2015).
The southern basin, with an area of 4,498 km
2
, covers
the three major river basins – Vorotan, Voghji and
Megriget. The main water consumers in the basin
are industrial (mainly mining and power plants),
agricultural (mainly producer of cereals and potatoes
and cattle livestock) and households (ca. 141,000
inhabitants as of January 2014). More than 80 per cent
of industrial enterprises are concentrated in the
Voghji river basin, whereas electricity production
is mainly concentrated in the basin of the river
Background and Legal Framework for Climate
Adaptation Mainstreaming into RBMP
The main purpose of the Water Code of the Republic
of Armenia Adopted by its National Assembly on
June 4th, 2002 is the conservation of national water
reserves, meeting the water needs of its citizens and
economy through effective management of usable
water resources, securing ecological sustainability
of the environment, as well as the provision of a
legal basis to achieve the objectives of this Code
(Government of the Republic of Armenia 2002). The
Code recognises the importance of integrated water
management and river management principles.
In 2006, the Law on the National Water Programme
was adopted. This law provides further clarity on
various issues, including definition of the various
types of “reserves”, classification of water systems
and identification of those of state significance,
assessment of water demand and supply, development
of a strategy for storage, distribution, and use of water
resources, delineation of the issues in various water
subsectors (for example, water supply andwaste water
collection, irrigation, hydropower), development
of water standard guidelines, and improvement of
water resources monitoring. Short-term (until 2010),
medium-term (2010–15), and long-term (2015–21)
measures for implementation of the National Water
Programme were also identified (Winston
et al
2014).
The Protocol decision of the Government of
Armenia No. 4 was adopted on the third of February
2011 “On approval of the content of the model plan
for water basin management”. According to this
decision consideration should be given to climate
change factors while developing plans for the
management of all of Armenia’s major river basins.
Recently three programmes were developed with
international assistance. The Debed and Aghstev
river basin management draft plans (EU), the Arpa
river basin management draft plan (UNDP/GEF),
and the Southern Basin Management Plan which will
be submitted to the Armenian government in 2015
(USAID 2015).
Climate adaptation under the southern basin
management plan
Sustainable use of water resources is linked to
the establishment of balanced issuance of water
permits and regulations with a focus on long-term
environmentally sound planning of water resources.
Currently such a decision-making support system
is underway through assessments in the southern
basin management area. It will enable evidence-
based decision-making on the management of water
resources considering hydrological, climatic and
economic analysis (USAID 2015).
In order to have evidence-based decision-making,
scientific data on water resources is required.
With this in mind, the USAID “Clean Energy and
Water” programme implemented a study on the
impacts of current and future water use on the
balance, depletion and recharge rates of ground
Integrating Climate Change Considerations into the River Basin Management
Plans of Armenia (RBMP)
CASE STUDY