The IDPs Were Congratulated with St. Mariam’s Day with Turning off Electricity

The so-called military city of Senaki where there are 621 IDP families living, is the biggest IDP settlement in the Western Georgia. There are 1828 IDPs registered here. On August 27th, “Energo-pro Georgia” stopped providing them with the electricity. The IDPs were punished for not signing the company requests.

An IDP from Abkhazia, Vano Lukava has been living in Senaki military settlement for 17 years now. According to him, several days before the August 27th, the representatives of Energo-pro Georgia dispensed applications among the IDPs and asked for signing. Otherwise, they threatened with turning off electricity.

“According to the application form, as a resident living in the settlement, I was asking this company to register me as a subscriber taking the responsibility of the payment of electricity on myself. The application didn’t talk about those state subsidies that belong to each IDP. To avoid the mistake, I didn’t sign the application. They cut the electricity off and it still has not been provided,” – states Lukava.

The electricity was also cut off in the mill of settlement and several stores that intensified the situation.

The IDP apartments in the former military city have been restored by the construction company “Block Georgia.” But, the problem of water reaching to the upper floors is still unsolved.

“The water pipes have been reconstructed, but it’s been without water for a long time now. It seems like they remember us only during the elections,” – sadly says the IDP from Abkhazia, Lamzira Mikava.

“There’s a settlement administration operating there, but the only thing they do is the taking out garbage out of the settlement territory. We called the hot line of the Ministry of IDPs, Refugees and Accommodation, but every attempt resulted in the long zoom and endless waiting,” – stated Nanuli Qobalia.

The construction works have been conducted in Senaki #112 boarding school as well, where there are 32 families living, but halls and the stairs remain unrepaired.

77-year-old IDP from Abkhazia, Shushanik Yurashvili is single and her only income is pension of 80 lari, which hardly covers her medication expenses. But the main problem of her and her neighbors is the lack of water: “I live on the fourth floor and don’t even remember when the water worked in my tap last time. Because of the health situation, I can’t get the water by myself and ask different neighbors for help.”
The IDPs from both settlements are asking for attention and solution of their social problems. We hope that the local and central government will remember them before the elections.