The loan from the French government at 75 million euros will help to build a reservoir in the Ararat valley with a capacity of 29 million cubic meters, announced Aram Harutyunyan, head of Water Industry State Committee, on May 11 in the Parliament.

In addition to the loan, the project will be co-financed by the Government of Armenia in the amount of 15 million euro. According to Aram Harutyunyan, 20 million cubic meters’ reservoir will be built in 5 years and will allow to implement irrigation of about 4 thousand. ha. If now those regions are irrigated from lake Sevan, the reservoir will allow to take that burden off the lake. In addition, the reservoir will allow the switch from pumping to self-serving   delivery and to suspend the work of 13 pumping stations, which will save about 12 mln. KW / h of electricity per year. The loan will be granted on favorable terms - for a period of 20 years, with a grace period of 6 years, under 1.29% per annum, with the payment of the obligations of 0.5% per annum.