For Immediate Release ~ July 17, 2012
Los Angeles, CA – Armenia Fund U.S. Western Region is building a potable-water network in Artsakh’s Hadrut City, the administrative center of the Hadrut Region. The project is being realized through a major contribution by Mr. and Mrs. Gerald and Patricia Turpanjian of Los Angeles, with additional support from the government of Artsakh. The Turpanjians were also the main sponsors of the construction of Stepanakert’s No. 11 (V. Jhangiryan) School, completed in 2010.
“Currently the city continues to do with a water network that was built in the 1970s,” said Edik Davtyan, deputy head of the Hadrut Regional Administration. “The corroded pipes often give out, resulting in several days of service interruption.”
Since the launch of the project in January 2012, almost half of a planned 33-kilometer distribution network has been built. Today, while work continues on the network, crews are also building water-distribution and -regulation wells. The final phase of the project will comprise the construction of a pump station and two reservoirs. When construction is completed, in Spring 2013, the more than 3,200 residents of Hadrut City will have around-the-clock access to drinking water.
“In 2008, with the construction of the 22-kilometer Arjaghbyur-Hadrut potable-water pipeline, the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund started the large-scale endeavor of modernizing Hadrut City’s water infrastructure,” said Ara Vardanyan, the fund’s executive director. “Last year, the continuation of the project was secured when benefactors Mr. and Mrs. Gerald and Patricia Turpanjian undertook to sponsor the construction of the internal water-distribution network.”
Located on the southern border of Artsakh, the Hadrut Region is among the republic’s driest and hottest areas. Vardanyan stated that although the residents of Hadrut City still grapple with a host of infrastructure and economic issues, a fundamental solution such as the provision of regular access to potable water will significantly improve their lives.
Other major projects implemented in the Hadrut Region by the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund include the construction, in 2009, of the 20-kilometer Togh-Hadrut gas pipeline, which supplies natural gas to the close to 5,200 residents of Hadrut City and seven nearby villages; and the reconstruction, in 2008, of the Hadrut Regional Hospital, which serves the entire population of the region, totaling over 12,000 residents.
