Yuri Grigoryan is a kankan by profession. Kankan is a Farsi word for someone who digs wells. They were digging yet another kahrez in Hadrut. A kahrez is an underground water pipe lined inside with stones. It connects different veins of water together and then brings them up to the surface, flowing under their own power.

Yuri Grigoryan considers a kahrez to be the most efficient of water transport systems – it provides water year-round, without requiring additional investments or expenses. “We don't use electricity, no special equipment is required, nothing of the sort – the water keeps flowing.”

The kahrez concept has been the main source of water for man's everyday existence for centuries. In the last century, however, advances in technology made the traditional pipes lose significance, because electricity allowed water from artesian wells to be pumped up to the surface from underground. “Now, electricity is expensive and the equipment doesn't work and is difficult to replace,” said Yuri.

Because of this, people have once again begun to appreciate the importance of underground pipelines, because the cost price of water supplied in this way is very low. Yuri said that the kahrez method had been used to supply both drinking and irrigational water in almost all of Karabakh. “The water problems were solved using the kahrez approach.” The kankan was certain that there was a forgotten kahrez in each of Karabakh's villages, and was convinced that they would not be difficult to find, renovate and use again.

Yuri Grigoryan is the only expert in underground water supply in Armenia and Karabakh. He can renovate an old kahrez or build a new one. “I've been doing this since 1996,” he said, “This is my twenty-sixth job.”

He likes working on old and new kahrez equally, but says that renovating an old kahrez is riskier because they sometimes collapse.

As part of a project by the Armenia Fund, Yuri Grigoryan renovated a kahrez in the village of Gishi in the Martuni region. He also renovated four kahrez sites in Armenia – in the village of Shvanidzor village in the Meghri region. “For example, I've set up a new kahrez – a completely new one – for our city of Martuni. It provides 45 liters of water a second.”

How can one tap into a vein of underground water? “It's very simple,” said Yuri, picking up two pieces of metal wire which were bent at angles, cupping them in his palms and walking. Yuri Grigoryan said that there was a vein of water under the spot where the pieces would bend and touch each other. Sensing skepticism, he gave the wires to us. “Try it and you'll see that even the research does not require any expenses.”

As we tried it, Yuri continued to explain, “If the wires turn around, then the water is flowing underground. If they just bend, then the water underground in stagnant.” Yuri said that he had not invented this, and could not tell us who had, because he did not know how old the kahrez concept was. He added that nobody knew who had established it. “A kahrez is older than the locality to which it supplies water, because first there must be water, only then do people come. If there is no water, people leave, and settlements are abandoned,” said Yuri and told us not to search for water. “There is water everywhere.”