Emergency water and sanitation assessment and action plan for Yerevan, Armenia

This report describes a short-term assessment of the water supply and sanitation conditions in Armenia. The Armenian capital city of Yerevan and three other cities (Vandazor, Abovion and Artashat) were documented and waterborne disease outbreaks were evaluated. Opportunities for short-term remedies to improve conditions relating to water, wastewater, solid waste, health education, household-level water and sanitation were identified. The authorities in Armenia were struggling to maintain basic public health services in the face of an energy blockade which has left most of the country without any residential heat and water and with electricity for two hours or less a day. Power to run chlorinators, pressure pumps for the water system, and sewage lift stations, is unreliable. When it is available, the low voltages delivered quickly damage much of the remaining operational equipment. The situation as observed in the four cities was seen to represent a high risk to users of the municipal water systems. The risks arise from daily alternating positive and negative pressures, breakage of water systems, the effects of the 1988 earthquake, and deterioration of treatment equipment. Sewage collection systems are in serious disrepair, resulting in significant quantities of untreated sewage being released under dwellings, on hilsides near housing developments, and into the Razdan River. The combination of leaking water lines, negative line pressures, and significant quantities of sewage released on the ground surface and into shallow groundwater presents a high risk of direct hand-to-mouth disease transmission. Solid waste represents less of a threat to health because of the cold conditions which existed at the time of the visit (March). The report provides recommendations concerning a number of short-term measures that can be taken to improve the situation, together with longer-term recommendations for future consideration.