There isn’t much that actually separates the communities of Big and Little Mantash, two villages in Armenia’s northern Shirak Province.

Over time, the two have become intertwined to the extent that you can walk from one into the other and not know it.

Ah, but there’s a difference emanating from the names; at least when it comes to government help from the central government in Yerevan.

This is what many in Little Mantash believe. They’ll tell you that when it comes attracting the attention of government planners in Yerevan, they get overlooked in favour of their bigger cousins.

“In reality, we aren’t all that small, but we have suffered due to our name,” says Little Mantash Mayor Zhirayr Hakobyan. “Actually, we have 80 more families than in Big Mantash. But when it comes to doling out projects, all it takes is for some official to look at the map and say it’s better to assist Big Mantash.”

Little Mantash has a population of 3,050. Every year some 40 marriages are celebrated. The village school has an enrollment of 390. The school needs to expand to cope with the demand. The kindergarten has a staff of 14 to monitor the 60 children that attend. Every year, the municipality allocates 9 million AMD to the kindergarten.

The two storey building that houses the kindergarten is also home to the mayor’s office, the library, music school and cultural center.

Mayor Hakobyan says he’s really like a separate building for the municipality but that right now the funds aren’t available for such a luxury.

Little Mantash has annual revenues of 5 million AMD and receives a central government subsidy of 37 million.

For the past two years work has been underway to bring natural gas to the community. The community hasn’t kicked in all the funds necessary to fulfil its 10% contribution to the project. As a result, four kilometres of the 17 kilometre pipe haven’t been installed.

Local resident Sasoun Hakobyan says that Little Mantash is the second largest village in the Artik region but laments the fact that it still doesn’t have access to gas.

“Some folk eat meat every day while others eat borsht. When has there ever been equality in this country to expect it today? They say that it isn’t cost effective to supply the village with gas, but let the residents decide if they want to use it or not,” says Hakobyan.

Sargis Levonyan, another resident of Little Mantash, voiced others concerns about the village to us.

He pointed to the adults assembled near the wall of the store and was upset that there are no facilities for people to congregate and spend some leisure time.

“Everyone says the village will improve over time. But we have no club or even a room to gather and play chess or backgammon. Right now, we still enjoy sunny days so we are able to meet here behind the store. Come winter, we won’t even be able to do that,” says Sargis Levonyan.

Little Mantash residents have refused the services of the water utility because it was too expensive and the water was of poor quality. The community has joined with three neighbouring villages and they all draw water from local springs. This was after the community had racked up a 68 million AMD water bill with the utility.

The community used to draw drinking water from the Mantash Reservoir. The problem is that the local chlorination unit built in the Soviet era hasn’t been working for the past 24 years.

Some twenty communities in the area still get their unprocessed water from the reservoir.

The central government has promised to invest some 65 million AMD in a water distribution project for the area, but only after Little Mantash and the other affected communities sit down with the sanitary authorities and iron out their differences.