Residents of the Aghavnatoun village in Armavir Marz have lately been trading blows with each other over irrigation water.

The water company has turned off the spigots for the past three days, thus depriving villagers of the precious liquid during the summer heat.

The local irrigation canal is now dry.

Staffers of the water utility have even gone so far as to lock the water valves of the supply system so that villagers can’t “hijack” the water. They’ve even started a round-the-clock security check.

But this hasn’t stopped some daring villagers to try to extract some water during the dark of night.

With shovels on their shoulders, the men folk head off into the murky night, followed by the women and kids carrying lamps and flashlights.

Curses and other choice expletives pierce the night as neighbours battle one another for whatever water is available. For the villagers, water is life.

Their crops are withering before their eyes. And the water stoppage couldn’t have come at a worst time – right before the fall harvest. It’s a major source of income for the villagers.

The local water utility is surprisingly called the Khoy-Water Consumers Union.

Khoy Director Seyran Sargsyan told Hetq that the water could be turned off for another 3-4 days.

The reason the company has turned off the water, according to Sargsyan, is the   50 million AMD the village owes to the utility.  It has ballooned over the past few years.

Another contract, this time for 28 million AMD, was signed between the village and the utility. So far, residents have only collected and paid 3.5 million.

Sargsyan struck a hard-line tone when he spoke to Hetq.

“The irrigation water will be turned off unless that village comes to its senses and pays what it owes. We did our part and supplied the water but these people haven’t paid. Only three people in the village have paid what they owed and they are getting water.”

Village resident grandpa Grigor would beg to differ with the utility director.

He told me that he’s paid his bills but that the small ditch leading to his field of tomatoes has dried-up and that the fruit is shrivelling on the vine.

“Is this how the government claims it is looking after the villagers? What a joke.”

Director Sargsyan doesn’t seem to be phased with the possibility that the villagers won’t have a crop to sell.

“Hey, what can I do? They say they can’t pay. Fine, so I don’t supply any water. Should I be the one assuming all the debt?”

In a few days the water will be turned off in the neighbouring communities of Amberd and Doghs.

I asked Sargsyan if the rates the utility was charging were too high and out of the reach of the villagers.

“Every spring I draw up a contract with the residents to pay 11 AMD per cubic meter of water. I am not gouging them or anything like that. My cost is 26 AMD and they won’t even pay me the 11 AMD? Let the government sell the water to me for just 1 AMD and I’ll charge the villagers the same rate.”