Armenian Small Municipalities Water Project

Overview
Project Summary Document
Environmental and Social Documentation
Procurement
Complaints

Project ID 40718

Status Repaying

Location

Armenia

Business Sector

Municipal Infrastructure

Notice Type

State

Project timeline

Exploratory
Passed Concept Review
Passed Structure Review
Passed Final Review
Board Approved
Signed
Implementing
Completed

Project ID 40718

Status Repaying

Location

Armenia

Business Sector

Municipal Infrastructure

Notice Type

State

Environmental Category

Approval Date

12 Jul 2011

Disclosure date

14 Jan 2011

As per section 1.4.2 (iii) of the Directive on Access to Information: "For Projects approved by Bank management where the Board of Directors has delegated the approval authority, the PSD shall be disclosed at the start of the relevant no-objection notification period to a member country of the Bank in accordance with Article 13 (iii) of the Agreement Establishing the EBRD."

Translated version of this PSD: Armenian

Project Description

The EBRD is considering providing a sovereign-guaranteed loan of up to €6.5 million to Armenia, to be on-lent to the Armenian Water and Sewerage CJSC (“AWSC”) to finance:

(i) municipal water supply improvements in Tavush, Lori, Shirak, Gegharkunik, Kotayk, Syunik municipalities and Vayots Dzor province; and
(ii) rehabilitation of the water treatment plants and sewerage collectors in Tavush (Town of Dilijan) and Vayots Dzor (Town of Jermuk) provinces.

The EIB is considering disbursing a co-financing loan of €6.5 million and the European Union Neighbourhood Investment Facility (the “NIF”) has given approval for a capital expenditure grant of €7.0 million.

Transition Impact

Transition Impact of the project comes from:

(i) Commercialisation of the Company through improved incentive based contracts that should lead to better cost control and higher realistic and achievable collection rates
(ii) Move to consumption based billing with improved water metering
(iii) Tariff reforms towards cost-reflective water and wastewater tariffs for all consumer groups

The Client

The Armenian Water and Sewerage CJSC, a state owned company currently operated by SAUR France SA under a long-term management contract.

EBRD Finance

€6.5 million.

Project Cost

€21.2 million, including related technical cooperation.

Environmental Impact

The project is categorised B. The environmental and social due diligence (ESDD) confirmed that the Company has an environmental, health and safety (EHS) management system with a well-structured set of procedures and defined staff responsibilities to manage many risks associated with environment, and health and safety of workers and communities during the Company’s day-to-day operations and during implementation of investment projects. However, these are not equally developed for all facilities and do not cover all aspects of the Company’s operations.

The Company’s current wastewater discharges are currently not in compliance with applicable EU EHS requirements and with the national regulatory requirements as none of the towns have a wastewater treatment plant in operation. Design and construction are ongoing for Sevan, Gavar, Vardenis and Martouni. Four villages (Jrashen, Saroukhan, Shatin and Getap) have no wastewater collection at all.

ESDD concluded that the project will not result in any significant adverse E&S impacts. Positive impacts of the project, on the other hand, will be significant. The project will improve the performance of the Company, reduce water losses and enhance the efficiency of the sewage system, thus having high social and environmental benefits for the participating communities. The project will also provide input to the programme of water demand management actions with installation of water metering equipment for adequate billing and collection management, which will contribute to the strengthening of the Company's financial position for implementation of future investment projects. The project will enable the Company to maintain the existing compliance of water supply facilities, result in major improvements of water supply and sanitation systems in the involved communities, and pave the way for more of the Company operated facilities to achieve compliance with the national and EU environmental requirements. However, bringing all of the Company’s operations into compliance with the EBRD PRs, especially EU environmental requirements, will require the implementation of additional long-term investment programmes that require substantial additional funds, which are currently not available. Therefore, due to constraints arising from affordability and limited financial resources, the Company will not be able to meet the relevant EU requirements for drinking water quality and wastewater discharges for all the customers, and derogation from the Bank’s Environmental and Social Policy is sought.

The risk posed to public health in downstream areas of the Arpa River and the Aghstev River arising from the continued wastewater discharges that do not meet national or EU environmental requirements is mitigated by a number of international projects that are under way. These investment projects funded by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank involve the extension of the existing sewage collection system. The new wastewater treatment plants in Dilijan and in Jermuk to be financed by the EBRD are expected to further reduce the pollution loads on the Aghstev and the Arpa rivers and also the transboundary impacts further downstream along these rivers in Azerbaijan and Iran.

Public information and consultation activities are being carried out by the Company for the ongoing investment projects financed by other IFIs. There is already a mechanism in place for stakeholder engagement. This needs to be extended to include the activities of the Project.

An ESAP addressing the issues identified during the ESDD so as to allow achieving compliance with the Bank’s PRs (with the exception of water and wastewater quality standards) is being finalised.

The Company will provide the Bank with Annual Environmental and Social Reports and notify on any material accidents or incidents. The Bank will evaluate the Project’s environmental and social performance in accordance with the Bank’s PR’s through reviewing annual reports and monitoring visits, when and if necessary.

Technical Cooperation

Pre-signing:

Technical review - Including technical, financial, environmental and social due diligence to assist the Bank with assessment of the proposed project (€0.2 million, funded by the Government of Canada).

Post-signing:

Engineering Services, Implementation and Procurement Support for the Project Implementer - Support to the Armenian Water and Sewerage Company for engineering design, tender evaluation, contract award and administration, financial control, project management, and reporting services (€1.0 million to be funded by a NIF TC grant and an international donor).

Transition impact

ETI Score:60

PSD last updated

01 Feb 2019

Business opportunities

For business opportunities or procurement, contact the client company.

For state-sector projects, visit EBRD Procurement: Tel: +44 20 7338 6794
Email: procurement@ebrd.com

General enquiries

EBRD project enquiries not related to procurement:
Tel: +44 20 7338 7168
Email: projectenquiries@ebrd.com

Public Information Policy (PIP)

The PIP sets out how the EBRD discloses information and consults with its stakeholders so as to promote better awareness and understanding of its strategies, policies and operations. Please visit the Public Information Policy page below to find out how to request a Public Sector Board Report.
Text of the PIP

Environmental and Social Documentation is not available for this project.

Selected procurement notices related to this project may be shown below. Further procurement opportunities related to this and other projects, if available, maybe be viewed in the EBRD Procurement Portal.

The EBRD's Environmental and Social Policy (ESP), Access to Information policy (AIP) and Project Accountability Policy (PAP) enable sound and sustainable development in its projects. The Independent Project Accountability Mechanism (IPAM) deals with complaints about environmental, social and disclosure matters related to the Bank’s investments.

No complaints about this project have been made so far.

Our story

How we invest in changing lives

What we offer for businesses

Search