Torrential Rains Threaten Georgian Town
Experts warn that rocks washed down by rivers could bury Kvareli if heavy flood occurs.
Torrential Rains Threaten Georgian Town
Experts warn that rocks washed down by rivers could bury Kvareli if heavy flood occurs.
Heavy rains in eastern Georgia are threatening to destroy villages, if urgent work is not done to shore up flood defences, environmental experts fear.
The lack of investment in clearing water courses and repairing embankments since the collapse of the Soviet Union has made heavy flooding a yearly feature of life in Georgia, dealing a blow to local residents and their agricultural production.
The Kakheti region has suffered worst. This month, hundreds of hectares of agricultural land have been flooded by rivers bursting their banks, and homes in many villages have been evacuated.
The situation has been worst of all in the town of Kvareli in the Duruji Gorge, 90 kilometres from Tbilisi. The rocks that accumulate in the river have not been dredged out for the last two decades, meaning its bed is currently higher than the houses on its bank, and are separated from it only by stones brought down by the mountain streams.
Emil Tsereteli, head of the Department of Geological Hazards and Geological Environment Management, part of the National Environmental Agency, said the rocks and other objects washed down over the years could bury the town if a heavy flood occurred.
“It is necessary to take urgent steps to stop the water destroying this obstruction so the town does not end up entombed under the stones brought down by the river. We must study the state of the embankment and restore it where necessary to avoid an ecological catastrophe,” he said.
“I have already been studying this river for many years and the situation is such that we can no longer put off resolving this problem.”
According to the Information Centre of Kakheti, the Duruji has inundated Kvareli several times. In 1949, a flood was so severe that it killed 60 people.
The seven-metre embankment, built at the start of the last century to protect the town, is now almost entirely buried under the stones brought down by the river.
“Since 1990 the river bed of the Duruji has not been cleared. Before this, six or seven excavators used to work almost every day clearing the river bed of rubble. But in the last 20 years, stones have raised the river bed by seven metres,” said Anzor Sakandelidze, a professor who has been part of a group of experts studying the river.
“Today the Duruji is higher than the inhabited territory and even in the event of a small flood there is a risk that the river could burst its banks and the accumulated stones could bury the local residents,” he said.
In fact, the very rocks that are currently defending the village could turn out to be its biggest threat.
“Even a normal flood could turn out to be enough for the river to break the barrier and carry it onwards with it,” Tchichiko Janelidze, a hydrologist, said.
Local residents are demanding that senior officials come to see their plight for themselves.
“We cannot sleep at night. There is rain all the time. At any moment, the river could burst its banks and break the barrier. We might not be able to escape,” said Niko Bejanishvili, a Kvareli resident, who was angry that other villages affected by the floods had won attention from the government.
“The ministers performed for the cameras in Veliststsikhe, let them come here and see our situation.”
Local officials were, however, relaxed about the threat, despite the arrival of the group of experts and their concerns.
“There is currently no danger and there is no need to agitate that there is something happening in the Kvareli region. The government has been informed and will restore the embankment soon,” Levan Gamsakhurdia, head of the local municipality, said.
It was not clear, however, how the work would be paid for.
“The sum necessary to clean the river bed basically does not exist, since the budget for 2010-11 is already set out,” Gia Tsintsadze, deputy head of the local government, said.
According to the Department of Coastal Protection, also part of the National Environmental Agency, 1.8 million lari (one million US dollars) has been set aside for strengthening river banks this year, but that must suffice for 350 different locations.
Elsewhere in the Kakheti region, on April 23-24 the heavy rains overfilled the Cheremi reservoir, damaged the dam and threatened to flood the villages of Velistsikhe, Cheremi and Khevistskali.
As a result, interior ministry experts had to evacuate around 600 families who lived in the most dangerous parts of Velistsikhe. On April 26, the dam was secured and the disaster averted.
Tea Topuria is a freelance journalist.
