Kaps Reservoir will be built: Pashinyan explained why he failed to fulfill his promise
YEREVAN, December 25. /ARKA/. The Kaps Reservoir will be built in the Shirak region, and the village of Jradzor will be relocated, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced today.
"Tenders were conducted following international protocols with the involvement of global partners. In every nation, there are instances where significant capital projects do not meet their deadlines. The government has taken every measure to ensure the success of this program. Unfortunately, our contractor partner, who won the tender, did not meet its obligations. Consequently, the contract was terminated. We will look for a new partner to carry out the program," Pashinyan stated during a briefing on Thursday.
December 2025, the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, along with the Territorial Development Fund, announced that the construction of the Kaps Reservoir had been halted, and the process to terminate the contract with the Chinese company Shanxi Construction Investment Group had commenced due to consistent failures to adhere to the schedule and contract terms.
The Prime Minister recognized that he had not fulfilled his promise but reassured that it would eventually be realized.
"We need to learn. There are issues we must learn to address and prevent. We gain insights from our errors. Constructing reservoirs should become a standard practice for us. We need to comprehend how such initiatives are executed," Pashinyan remarked.
He acknowledged that in 2018, his administration believed that financial resources could resolve all issues, but it later became evident that even with funding and a tender, much relied on the contractor.
The agreement for the Kaps Reservoir's construction in the Shirak region was signed between the Armenian government and the German bank KfW in April 2023. The project's budget was set at €97.8 million, with €68.5 million sourced as a loan from KfW, while the remainder was to be co-financed by the Armenian government. Recent updates suggest a total budget ranging from approximately €95 to €120 million.
The current project involves two phases: Phase 1 – a reservoir with a capacity of 25 million cubic meters; Phase 2 – expansion to 60 million cubic meters. With a capacity of 25 million cubic meters, it is planned to provide water to approximately 17,000 hectares of land through the Akhuryan and Shirak canals; convert 2,280 hectares from mechanical irrigation to gravity irrigation, and save approximately 1.3 million kWh of electricity per year. With the expansion to 60 million cubic meters, land in the Talinsky district (several thousand more hectares) will be converted to gravity irrigation, and energy savings will increase to 11 million kWh per year.-0-
