Residents of Collapsed Residential Building in Vaziani Still Wait for Help

Manon Bokuchava, Kvemo Kartli 

On March 11, five-storied residential building partly collapsed in Vaziani military settlement. Nobody was injured but 20 families remained homeless. Ministry of Defense gave them tents and supplied them with food every day.

Eight months have passed since the accident. Humanrights.ge inquired whether local and central governments paid any attention to the victimized citizens. 

We again found tents in front of the collapsed building in Vaziani settlement. Our host Khvicha Gogia said six more people have been living in the tent for eight months already.

“After the collapse, they assisted us only with 300 lari; Ministry of Defense supplied us with food during five months; but they have not paid attention to us for the past three months…Gardabani district government does not pay any attention to us. We live in unbearable conditions; we cannot use wood stove because the tent is made of tarpaulin and people said it is prohibited. Nobody offered us alternative accommodation,” a resident of the collapsed building Khvicha Gogia said.

He added that other residents of the Vaziani military settlement had not privatized the flats. “We were sheltered here spontaneously. Russian soldiers left their flats and we moved there. Now, we already officially registered in Gardabani district though local government does not have time to attend our problems. The new governor has not visited us to learn about our problems,” Gogia said.

Unlike him, Maro Abuladze preferred to return to the semi-collapsed building:  “My daughter-in-law, two underage grandchildren and I live here. I am afraid of collapsing but how long could we stay at our relatives. They are also a large family and we could not bother them for a long time.

My son is a military servant. He has recently returned from Afghanistan and soon will go back. The Ministry of Defense gave us four rooms in the former building of post but could not move because there was no toilet, water, natural gas and electricity supply there – we could not repair it,” Abuladze said.

One more resident of the semi-collapsed building lives in the garage. Liana Gigauri said she received 300 lari after the accident and it was the only assistance from the government. She asked us to mediate her before the government to pay attention to them; “how long should we live in the garage?!” 72-year-old woman wondered.

Other residents of the collapsed building were satisfied by different governmental institutions. Ministry of IDPs assisted IDPs; Ministry of Defense gave alternative accommodations to the part of families of the military servants. Those remained without homes still urge the Gardabani district administration for help.

Representatives of the Gardabani district government said they “are extremely sorry” for the homeless residents of Vaziani settlement but they do not have flat fund and cannot help them.

See on the topic: