Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that addressing water supply and irrigation challenges will be a top priority for Armenia over the next five years, stressing the need for improved water resource management and wider use of water-saving technologies.

He made the remarks at a meeting with residents of the village of Vardenik during a visit to Gegharkunik province.

“In the next five years, water issues will be a priority for us. To help you understand how important we consider water issues, I will say that just as peace was one of the primary issues in the past five years, water will be one of the priority issues in the next five years. My most painful observation is that there is not a single settlement in the country where there are no water problems. The good news is that we have water resources in our highlands, but we must be able to collect those resources and manage them properly. I should also note that we need to change the way we irrigate fields and orchards. There are water-saving technologies for that as well, and we will stand by our farmers on all these issues,” the prime minister added.

He further noted that in some communities, residents use drinking water for irrigation, which in turn leads to shortages of potable water.

“There must be both drinking and irrigation water everywhere, because if neither exists, the problem is not solved. If there is drinking water but no irrigation water, people will use drinking water for irrigation, and in that case there will not be enough drinking water. It is very simple logic,” Pashinyan said.