The PURE Water project had planned to address the following issues: Awareness-raising of target local governments of the BMO activities BMO capacity building through public participation and information provision and exchange Making BMOs more active and fostering cooperation with the basin communities‟ residents through presentation of BMO daily activities, WUP issuance processes, and the measures implemented on the basin level. ToT for BMOs to train and assist water users in using the water use permitting online platform developed and provided by the project to the RA MNP. The project target communities were located in Ararat, Akhuryan or Hrazdan basin management areas. To promote cooperation between BMOs and project target communities, PURE Water project organized a series of introductory meetings between Ararat, Akhuryan and Hrazdan BMOs representatives (Annex RA 1-8). BMOs shared with local stakeholders the information on their day-to-day responsibilities and functions as regards each BMOs service areas, including rivers and natural lakes, and communities served as well as about the process of issuance of WUPs. Based on the agreement with MNP, USAID-funded PURE Water and ASPIRED projects, within their mandates, committed to support MNP in improving e-governance and transparency, particularly, improve and upgrade water resource cadaster and create an opportunity for simplified on-line water-permitting. PURE Water project particularly developed the simplified on-line water-permitting platform. The role of BMOs during operation of this system is important. They would be able to coordinate the process of WUP requests directly from their offices. Within the PURE Water project, BMO representatives‟ capacities were strengthened to assist the water users in the online application process. Water Use Permitting Platform User Manual has been developed to facilitate the practical use of the on-line platform.
Challenges and Recommendations Challenges ●
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Compared to the situation at the beginning of the project the level of activism and capacity of many residents in the target communities considerably increased, which can be attributed to PURE Water interventions. In spite of this, the majority of residents remain passive and not engaged. Overall, the level of civic engagement, voicing the problems and pursuing final solutions remain low due to prevailing traditional/cultural constraints, especially in rural communities, where it may not be “honorable” for men to publicly speak about the problem and criticize somebody and for women to participate in community discussions. As it was already mentioned, the Government Cabinet before the Velvet Revolution was not quite enthusiastic to follow-up on the implementation of the jointly developed Strategy and Road Map, although USAID has designed the project based on the Government priorities. The previous issue was resolved after the Velvet Revolution by the new Cabinet which was open and cooperative. However, high turnover of the leadership in partner ministries and agencies slowed down the relevant activities foreseen by the project work-plan. Good partnership with the RA NA Standing Committee and RA MTAI Water Committee resulted in the drafting of three legal documents. These units of executive and legislative bodies were ready to initiate the submission/circulation of the draft laws to the NA for approval, however, the constitutional amendments foreseen for March had shifted the Government priorities and resources to preparation and holding of the Referendum. The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic and announcement of the state of emergency in the country halted the finalization of the legislative process under the project. BMOs were not quite enthusiastic and motivated to provide input for and learn from the project. According to the project observations, these were mainly because of the following reasons: - BMOs are understaffed to implement assigned responsibilities. Each of them has only 2-3 staff members each responsible for the water basin covering dozens of communities and large geographic areas. 16
