Millennium Challenges Corporation Repairs 17 Pumping Stations In Arm

MILLENNIUM CHALLENGES CORPORATION REPAIRS 17 PUMPING STATIONS IN ARMENIA WORTH $42 MILLION

ARKA
Oct 3, 2011

ARARAT, October 3. / ARKA /. U.S. government-run Millennium Challenges
Corporation (MCC) had financed the repair of 17 pumping stations in
five Armenian provinces – Ararat, Armavir, Aragatsotn, Syunik and
Tavush worth $42 million, Ara Hovsepian, the executive director of
the Millennium Challenge Account – Armenia, said today to reporters.

Armenian prime minister Tigran Sarkisian and øoo vice president
Patrick Fine, who is paying a three-day visit to Armenia, attended
the opening of Ranchpar-1 pumping station in Ararat province.

According to Ara Hovsepian, some $5.5 million had been invested in
the rehabilitation ÝÁ Ranchpar-1, implemented by a French company.

He said Ranchpar-1 is the most powerful of all ÚCØÚÛÔÐ stations
rehabilitated on MCC funds. He said it included installation of new
pumps and building the main canals, repair of buildings, cleaning
and deepening of collectors, as well as the construction of a dam
within the reservoir to reduce groundwater levels and thus improve
the drainage system in Ararat Valley.

Ranchpar-1 will take irrigation water to 4,100 hectares of land,
cultivated by about 10 thousand water users from 23 communities. In
general, according to Hovsepian, some $19 million have been invested
by MCC in the restoration of the drainage systems in Ararat Valley,
which included the cleaning of 470 km of collectors.

The five-year program “Millennium Challenge Account-Armenia” was
officially ended on September 29. Patrick Fine will be visiting
Armenia October 2-4 to review the results of the five year US-funded
MCA-Armenia Program. He is scheduled to meet with senior government
officials, farmers, donor partners, and private sector and civil
society representatives. He will visit several Armenian regions
as well.

In 2006, the U.S. Government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation
(MCC) and the Government of the Republic of Armenia signed a Compact
with the objective of reducing rural poverty through a sustainable
increase in the economic performance of the agricultural sector. The
program was officially completed on September 29, 2011. The MCC grant
investment of nearly USD 177 million in the MCA-Armenia program have
benefited over 420,000 rural residents in around 350 communities
across Armenia by refurbishing major sections of the country’s main
canal systems, modernizing some of the most urgently needed pumping
stations, introducing new gravity irrigation schemes, re-building
tertiary canals and restoring sections of the Ararat Valley Drainage
system. The MCA-Armenia program has also trained over 45,000 farmers
in improved agriculture practices, delivering technical assistance
to water supply associations.