23 Families in Isolation for 9 Months

Gela Mtivlishvili

51-year old resident of the village Vedzatkhevi of Dusheti region Nodar Zviadauri fell from the rock and got injured. His health state is very hard. However, it is not possible to transfer him to the hospital. Vedzatkhevi has been isolated from the outside world for 9 months now.

The road to village has been destroyed by the landslide. It was fixed once, but was damaged again and was not fixed the second time. The village is a landslide risk zone.

“The auto way ends at the village Veltaurtkari, 3 km before Vedzatkhevi. We walk this distance through pathway. If it is not raining, we use donkeys.

7 000 GEL has been allotted for the village Vedzatkhevi under the frameworks of village support program. The residents unanimously took decision to fix the road by this money. We composed the document and brought it to the deputy Soso Taniashvili. Nobody came to take it. A month and a half has passed since then. They promise to help, but they lie to us.

If they do not fix the road now, the rain season will start then and we will be in trouble. We need to bring hay for the cow. We cannot even bring our food to home. When we buy a sack of flour we leave it in the neighboring village and carry it with buckets. People leave village every day. There is no school here. Some people took their children to orphanages, some have them at home and cannot even teach them to read and write,” – states the resident of Vedzatkhevi Nino Kapiashvili.

According to the resident of Vedzatkhevi Tamar Inashvili, the member of Dusheti Municipality City Council Zurab Otiashvili gave a promise to start the auto way construction works. “Otiashvili promised us to start the rehabilitation of the damaged road starting from August 23rd, but they did not do it,” – states Inashvili.

According to Dusheti local government, the rehabilitation works connecting to the village Vedzatkhevi should be implemented in 2011 under the frameworks of village development project. 4 547 GEL is envisaged for fixing the damaged road in the budget.

11 families live in Vedzatkhevi. According to official information of Dusheti local government, this number is 23. Not too long ago the issue of eviction was raised in the agenda.

“Even if we agree on eviction, will we not need road? How can we bring out our items from the village? 8 out of 11 families request 10 000 GEL compensation. 3 families are ready to be evicted to Lagodekhi, but nobody came to them either,” – states Nino Kapiashvili.

Dusheti municipality local government noted that they are acquainted with the problem of Vedzatkhevi village and will try to help the population.

“Vedzatkhevi is in the landslide risk zone and we are trying to evict the population. We offered them to be located in Kakheti. We will address the Ministry of IDPs from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees of Georgia and will fix the problem,” – stated the Governor of Dusheti Municipality Lasha Janashvili.

According to the head of Eviction Department of the Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation Giorgi Mazmishvili, the Ministry has studied the problem of Vedzatkheveli residents.

“We offered the alternative residence to eleven families in Lagodekhi region. At first they agreed. Then we found out that only three families agreed. They asked to see the place where they would leave beforehand. We will show them the place as soon as we manage to. As for the other families, hopefully they will agree on the offered terms. We will not pay the compensation money,” – noted Mazmishvili.