Toward Integrated Water Resources Management in Armenia

The proper management of water resources
plays a key role in the socioeconomic development of
Armenia. On average, Armenia has sufficient water resources.
Taking into account all available water resources in the
country, Armenia has sufficient resources to supply
approximately 3,100 cubic meters per capita per year well
above the typically cited Falkenmark water stress indicator
of 1,700 cubic meters per capita per year. These water
resources are not evenly divided in space and time with
significant seasonal and annual variability in river runoff.
In order to address temporal variations in river runoff, the
country has built 87 dams with a total capacity of 1.4
billion cubic meters. Most of these dams are single purpose,
mainly for irrigation. Armenia also has considerable
groundwater resources, which play an important role in the
overall water balance. About 96 percent of the water used
for drinking purposes and about 40 percent of water
abstracted in the country comes from groundwater. Irrigation
remains the largest consumptive user.