NEWS

02.06.2010

Hovik Abrahamyan, RA National Assembly Speaker and Marie L. Yovanovitch, US Ambassador in Armenia visited Ararat marz

Aygezard gravity system, Armash pumping station and farmer Harutyun Hovhannisyan's greenhouse: these were the sites picked by the high-ranking guests to see what is being done by MCA-Armenia program in Ararat marz.
The first target of the visit was Aygezard gravity system, which will provide irrigation water to more than 702 hectares of lands after rehabilitation. MCA-Armenia is rehabilitating 8.5 km of the gravity system. Farmer Ashot Abrahamyan's orchard is situated just next to the canal. It also serves as a Water-to-Market demonstration site and is equipped with drip irrigation system. Thanks to the rehabilitation of the gravity system, Ashot and a number of farmers like him will not have lack of irrigation water to cultivate crops in their orchards.
The next site was a greenhouse in Avshar community. The following improvements and technologies were introduced to this plot to serve as a demonstration site for farmers' trainings under the MCA-Armenia program: drip irrigation system established on a 1,500 square meter greenhouse and a seed center, where seedlings' production of different vegetables and their further production in the greenhouse and open field are demonstrated. Farmer Harutyun Hovhannissyan is also a borrower under MCA-Armenia's Credit component and has installed a new heating system into the greenhouse and has enlarged his orchard.
And finally, the last site of the visit was Armash pumping station, where the rehabilitation works are on-going. The total investment made by MCA-Armenia here will be USD 2.9 million. The following renovations are being done in Armash pumping station: replacement of all pumps and motors, electric equipments and cables, full rehabilitation of the building and intake, construction of a sand catcher.

22.05.2010

Stakeholders' Committee and Governing Council members' elections 2010 results

On May 22, 2010 the elections for the Stakeholders' Committee (SC) and Governing Council (GC) civil society members under the Millennium Challenge Account Armenia Program were held. The elections 2010 were the fifth and the last one in its kind to be organized with the Program.
282 representatives from different organizations were registered by the election committee to participate at the elections as voters and 19 of them were registered as candidates. 239 representatives from different organizations participated at the close secret voting, in result of which the following 15 candidates were selected as SC members: the first five members with the highest votes will also serve as GC members:

...details

12-21.05.2010

From May 12-21 Jonathan Richart, Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Environmental Social Assessment (ESA) Associate Director and Armando Balloffet, MCC ESA Consultant were in Armenia on an Implementation Oversight Mission. The primary purpose of this particular mission was to finalize planning for the remaining ESA oversight activities and review the progress to date. More specifically, the mission worked with the MCA-Armenia ESA team on the following key activities:

- Coordination with the Infrastructure Activity Project (IAP) with regards to current work plan, review of key environmental aspects of IAP and defining the timing and sequencing of outstanding deliverables. Of special interest were the issues related to preservation/maintenance of the Ramsar site in Ararat Valley Drainage and finalization of Environmental and Social Assessment for Martuni and Zolakar pump station Environmental Management Plans.

- Review the draft MCA-Armenia Management Information System developed under a contract with the Environmental and Social Assessment Oversight Contractor (ESAOC).

- Review the ESAOC progress and define the further plans.

10-21.05.2010

On May 10-21 Gary Merkley, an individual consultant hired by MCC to implement the quality assurance review of the Institutional Strengthening (IS) of Water Management Entities’ Project, was paying a working visit to Armenia. The visit was highlighted with various meetings, most of them with irrigation water management entities – Water Users’ Associations (WUA), Water Supply Agencies – which are the main targets of the Institutional Strengthening component.
At the end of his mission Gary Merkley made his comments and suggestions concerning the implementation and future steps of the IS component. Particularly, he underlined that the progress in the work of the WUAs and Water Supply Agencies is obvious, as compared with the period before the program implementation. One of his main recommendations was the development and successful implementation of the Irrigation Policy, which will positively influence the work of all the entities.

07.05.2010

On May 7, the U.S. Ambassador Marie L. Yovanovitch and the Deputy Prime Minister Armen Gevorgyan opened 2.5 kilometers of the 8.5 kilometers that constitutes the Aygezard gravity irrigation canal (Ararat marz) rehabilitated under the Millennium Challenge Account-Armenia Program. A farmer's plot at the 1.4 kilometer mark also was the scene for a number of other important programmatic events, including the inauguration of the 200th Demonstration Site under MCA-Armenia's Water-to-Market Activity.

Press release

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