Water Shortages Intensifying in Armenia along Turkish Border and in Syunik Oblast

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Nov. 19 – Approximately half of Armenia’s territory is suffering from desertification and another quarter is at risk of that, a disaster that is hitting regions along the Turkish border and in Syunik Oblast, which lies between Azerbaijan proper and the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan, particularly hard.

            As a result, it is proving ever more difficult for the Armenian government to maintain its population in these areas let alone move more people into them in order to promote its national security, especially as Yerevan lacks the funds to develop new water supplies in these places (vpoanalytics.com/sobytiya-i-kommentarii/armeniya-vodnye-problemy-tolko-vodokhranilishchami-ne-reshit/).

            In large part, this development is the result of global warming and losses in water used for less than optimal means of farming; but in part, it reflects Turkey’s increasing withdrawal of water from rivers that flow into Armenia and have cut their flow by 35 to 40 percent over the last dozen years.

            Building more small reservoirs, Yerevan’s current policy choice, won’t be sufficient to reverse this trend, one that is certain to have an impact on Armenia’s relations with Turkey and on plans to reopen the corridor through Syunik/Zengezur and even raise new security issues in both places that could undermine warning relations between Armenia and its neighbors.