In 2005, the French charity Brothers of Hope donated 10,000 euros as part of French-Armenian benefactress Taguhi Alexanyan's initiative to start installing irrigation pipelines in the village of Ujan in the Aragatsotn Marz. It was planned to irrigate 150 hectares of land using 2,300 meters of pipeline. The 150-hectare area designated for irrigation was once called Apple Tee Fields, but due to a lack of water the people were forced to cut the trees down and plant wheat and barley. Almost no water reaches that area of land. The pipeline was to be completed and villagers were expected to use it to irrigate their land this year.

But none of the villagers have been able to use that irrigation water because the pipes have not been welded to date. Head of the Village Administration Norik Muradyan has told Taguhi Alexanyan that only three or four days of work remain, but the task has not been completed for the past six months. He lied to us three times, each time stating a different day for the opening of the pipeline.

Taguhi Alexanyan gave the 10,000 euros to Ujan village head Norik Muradyanto buy pipes and valves for the irrigation project. Muradyan signed and stamped a receipt to this effect.

Norik Muradyan	Hakob Haroyan

According to the program, the office of the village head was to provide the salaries for the construction work and the laborers, a sum totaling US $6670. The village head stated that he collected that money from the landowners, who each contributed 3,000 drams. But that has not helped the work to progress either. The laborers did not work every day because they did not receive pay on a daily basis. They said that they would be willing to work daily if the village head would pay them, instead of trying to convince them with words.

“They refused to work in the summer, saying that they were sowing wheat and barley in the fields. But what was the use? There was no water so they didn't have a harvest. Throughout the fall they kept assuring me that they would finish the work any day now. I believed them and waited, but it is still not complete. Why don't they want to understand that this is being done for them?” asked the French-Armenian benefactress, “I thought that they would be able to have good harvests once they have water and would be able to care for their needs, give their children an education, live a little better.”

The money Alexanyan donated was used to buy 13 valves and 2,300 meters of pipe. The pipes were old. They had earlier been used to supply drinking water and were bought from the community water utility union.

When asked why work on the pipeline had not yet been completed, the Ujan village head started to complain about the weather and rain. He had even sent a letter of gratitude to Alexanyan in which he stated, “Now 2,300 meters of pipeline have been completely installed and 150 hectares of dry land have turned into irrigated fields.”

“But how is it complete if the pipe segments have not been welded and water does not flow through them?” asked Alexanyan in surprise. “I don't need this letter. I want to see the work completed. Maybe he's hoping that I'll go back to France and he'll be able to leave everything incomplete like that,” she said. She has been forced to postpone her return to France a number of times already.

The water was supposed to reach up to Ujan resident Hakob Haroyan's field. But because work has not yet been completed, Haroyan skipped yet another fall planting.

“I have two pieces of land, but I haven't planted anything. It's not just me, 90 per cent of the people of Ujan have not planted anything this fall. We are seven brothers, but none of us has planted anything. I don't have any water, and it's a case of once bitten, twice shy. I planted three sacks of barley last year, but lost all of it. Every year they say we'll have water, but there is no water. The village head says every day that it will only take three or four days more of work. But I don't believe it - the work has not progressed. They're lying. At this point we should have already sown the wheat and watered it twice, but we haven't done anything,” Haroyan said.

Taguhi Alexanyan helped solved the problem of drinking water supply to Ujan. Ujan has a population of 3,200. 60 percent of the population now has drinking water ten hours a day, while the remaining 40 percent continue to collect water and keep it in bottles and buckets, because they have water on Tuesdays and Saturday s only, for four hours each time.

Over the past three years, problems in drinking and irrigation water supply were solved in the village of Sous, in the Kashatagh region of Nagorno Karabakh, through Alexanyan's efforts.

“The village of Sous did not have drinking water. The villagers asked for help. I presented the project in France and the French benefactors approved and supported it. It took just 5,000 dollars to get the work done. The villagers' joy knew no bounds,” Alexanyan said. The villagers in Sous call her Jraber (water bearer). Mrs. Alexanyan's charity does not limit itself to installing pipelines. For ten years, she has been contributing thousands (around 100 tons) of French books to schools, academies and universities in Armenia.

The benefactress has now found herself in a difficult position and does not know where to seek support. She is worried because she had to present her French counterparts with the results of the completed work. Otherwise, according to the agreement, she will have to return the 10,000 euros spent on the project. She left for France on December 4, hoping to convince her partners to provide more time for the completion of the project.