by David Zenian
When a young man by the name of Hrant Fenerdjian (1906-1987) began his career as a chief draftsman and assistant engineer in 1927, Athens was a city of 800,000 with an acute problem: the shortage of water. The existing municipal system could supply only four gallons per capita and was completely inadequate.
Fenerdjian, barely 21 years old, had just graduated from Robert College in Istanbul with a degree in engineering and moved to Athens to begin working for the Ulen Company which was undertaking the construction of the Athens to Piraeus waterworks.
"Water is the source of life," the late Fenerdjian once told his widow, Louise , who lives in Athens. "I remember my husband every time I drink a glass of water." From 1927 to 1932, Fenerdjian not only learned more about water distribution, but became an expert. It was during these years that the 54-meter-high and 300-meter-wide Marathon Dam was built, along with its supporting pumping stations and other facilities. The project cost $11,300,000, a large sum of money at the time.
With the Marathon Dam under his belt, Fenerdjian and his team of engineers embarked on yet another ambitious project-connecting the new water supply to 100,000 households and other establishments in the Athens and Piraeus area.
"Hrant was so excited about his work," his widow explained. "The completion of every new portion of the project was a day of celebration for Hrant. Whatever we talked about, the conversation ended in one thing - water," she said.
But Athens was growing, and what Fenerdjian had put in place was once again to become inadequate. In 1937 Fenerdjian embarked on yet another project to bring more water to the city. The work involved the construction of a 174 kilometer long aqueduct system, complete with tunnels, siphons, underground pipes, and other facilities. The estimated cost of the project was $11,000,000.
Despite delays caused by the Second World War, Fenerdjian not only completed the project in 1950, but also expanded the distribution system to wider areas of the city and its surrounding suburbs, trying to catch up with the population growth and the increasing demand.
In 1955 Fenerdjian was promoted to Chief Engineer of the Athens-Piraeus Waterworks, taking complete charge of planning, design and construction of the entire distribution system. "Some of his friends called my husband Mr. Water," his widow says.
During his tenure as Chief Engineer from 1955-1967, the city of Athens and adjacent Piraeus continued to grow, creating greater challenges every day.
In 1955, water consumption was 33,100,000 cubic meters. In 1967, that figure had jumped to 108,600,000 cubic meters. The number of houses connected to the system also jumped from 167,633 to 514,000, the length of the water distribution system from 1,516 kilometers to 3,564 kilometers and the area served from a mere 37 square kilometers to 160 square kilometers.
The purification plant which served the greater Athens region had a capacity of 30,000,000 million gallons per day in 1954. By the end of the end of the latest phase of the project in 1967, the capacity rocketed to 120,000,000 million gallons per day.
Fenerdjian resigned from the Athens water authority in 1968, after serving 41 years, the last thirteen as Chief Engineer. During his long career, he brought water to Athens from Lake Yliki two years ahead of the government construction project by an ingenious scheme of using spare pumps and pipes and intermediate small reservoirs.
He personally proposed and executed a project to bring water to a key pumping station by an open aqueduct and floating pumps, saving the government millions of dollars. It was not a coincidence that he became Mr. Water, a legend for generations of engineers who followed in his footsteps.
But there was more for Fenerdjian than his dedication to the city of Athens and its people. He was also a man who gave community service a new meaning. "Despite his busy schedule, Hrant always had time for fellow Armenians. Never in his life did he say no to anyone in the Armenian community who needed help," his widow recalled.
An active member of the Armenian General Benevolent Union, Fenerdjian gave not only his time, but also material support to help hundreds of people through his work in the church, school, clubs, and other community structures.
Years before his death in 1989, Fenerdjian donated a good part of his private wealth to the AGBU, including three apartments and seven offices in downtown Athens, which still generate considerable income for the AGBU and it's community work in Greece.
"AGBU, like water, was his life..he was devoted to both. He spared no effort to make them grow and flourish," his widow said. "When AGBU needed his expertise as an engineer, Hrant was always available...ready to travel, to go out and help. Community service was a mission which he took very seriously."
The late Fenerdjian was not just a member of the AGBU, but a devoted "soldier" for what the organization stood for, serving on its executive committee and often spending more time in community service than the long hours he put in as the chief engineer of the Athens water authority.
He supervised numerous construction projects, reached out to families in need, and spared no effort to help the community get back on it's feet during the hardship years of the early 1930's and the poverty following the Second World War.
"We did not have a family of our own, but the community at large was Hrant's extended family," Mrs. Fenerdjian recalls. True to her late husband's wishes, she still continues "Hrant's mission". "He wanted me to continue helping Armenians, and I will as long as I can," she said.
Now in her early 70's, and while keeping a low-profile, Mrs. Fenerdjian has mobilized a core group of a dozen Armenian women in Athens to help the Armenian Embassy, especially the Armenian military students from Yerevan.
"The group, with funds provided mainly from AGBU members, has rented and furnished four small apartments in Athens for the visiting cadets. We also provide them with some pocket money to make their stay in Greece as comfortable as possible," she said in a recent interview.
The members of the women's committee pay regular visits to the students, helping them with their various chores, sometimes even cleaning their apartments. "These young boys are far away from their homes and families," Mrs. Fenerdjian said. "They remind me of my husband when he was a young engineer...ambitious and willing to learn."
It has been more than 12 years since Hrant Fenerdjian's death, but his legacy lives on. Athens is no longer a city of 800,000, it's water resources are not what they used to be, but both the Greeks and Armenians can take pride in the work done by an Armenian engineer with a dream and determination to make Athens a better place to live for generations to come.
