The second public discussion of the project of the Southern Water Basin Management Plan has been held.
The main purpose of the discussion was to present the problems of water resources management and the proposed measures in the southern water basin management area and to receive the opinions and comments of the interested parties on them in order to properly prepare the plan of measures.
During the event, the experts of the USAID "Improving Water Resources Management of Armenia" program and the experts of the Ministry of Environment presented the significant quantitative and qualitative pressures on water resources in the Southern Basin Management Area, as well as the current and projected impacts.
The proposed measures aimed at addressing them in the next five years were also presented and discussed.
Gayane Hovsepyan, Head of the Environmental Water Resources Management Department, Edgar Martirosyan, Secretary General of the Syunik Regional Administration and John Allelo, Mission Director of the USAID/Armenia, gave a speech of welcome and emphasized the active participation of the interested parties and industry specialists in the process of completing the management plan and summarizing the program of measures.
More than 60 representatives of the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures, the Statistics Committee, other state bodies, the Provincial Government of Syunik, local self-government bodies, public organizations, scientific institutions and universities attended the event and participated online.
The request for revision of the Southern Water Basin Management Plan is stipulated by the legal regulations of the Water Code of the RA and aims to assess the current state, problems and newly emerging circumstances of the Southern Water Basin Management Area, proposing measures and implementation mechanisms aimed at improving water resources, based on the international obligations assumed by the Republic of Armenia and the principles of the Water Code of the RA and the requirements for water basin management. 
The first public discussion of the project of the Southern Water Basin Management Plan was organized in March, in Kapan, Syunik Province, with the support of the USAID program.