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Grisha Balasanyan

Vardenis Mayor and Armenian Water & Sewage at Loggerheads Over Meter Installation

Residents of Vardenis get their drinking water from a gravity fed system but the "Armenian Water and Sewage Company" has decided to force consumers to install water meters. This decision has not only got local residents up in arms but Vardenis Mayor Volodya Khloyan is incensed as well. Mayor Khloyan has convened a special session of the municipal council and has made his feelings known to RoA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan and the French top managers of the company. "Let me say with all sincerity that our forbearers settled this area especially for the water. Our municipal council has sent a letter of protest to the prime minister, requesting that water usage not be measured not in cubic meters but that a symbolic fixed fee be assigned for each family. Otherwise, they'll be reading meters and writing down water bills of 5,000 and 50,000 drams. This would be a shame. Is this what we want? They want us to install meters. If we do so, the neighboring village of Akunk will be flooded out. The source of our water is in Akunk. If we stop using water and close the taps it will back up in Akunk because it is gravity-fed. If they put valves and locks on the water, who will be held responsible when the pipes freeze and crack in the winter?" complained Mayor Khloyan in a telephone conversation with "Hetq". Mayor Khloyan said that Armenian Water and Sewage had made no investments in Vardenis and hadn't even supplied the town with the necessary equipment in case of an accident. He was surprised that the company was now interested in the town's water supply and asked rhetorically what distribution they were talking about when necessary repairs to the system had never been made. Even Armenian Water and Sewage Vardenis Branch Manager Vrezh Mkrtchyan confessed that there was a lack of necessary equipment and serious problems in the town. But he didn't share the pessimism of Mayor Khloyan that the pipes would freeze and break. On the other hand he wasn't willing to guarantee that they wouldn't either. When we asked Mr. Mkrtchyan what would happen to Akunk residents if meters were to be installed, he answered, "It is true that the holding reservoir is in poor condition. Even now, when we shut off the water for repairs, Akunk residents complain that the water backs up and floods their homes. What can I say? Hopefully, the home owners will find a solution to the problem themselves."

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