Protest Actions for Compensating Damages Caused by Hailstones

Lado Bichashvili, Shida Kartli

Tortiza, Kheltubani, Rekha, Sveneti, Berbuki, Adzvi, Mejvriskhevi, Kirbali, Zerti – this is an incomplete list of the villages where the hailstones destroyed the fruit gardens and plants entirely.

On June 2nd, strong hailstones damaged more than ten villages in Gori municipality. The residents of these villages are mainly occupied with agricultural business. The natural disaster left the pheasants without any income. 

People say in the village Sveneti of Gori municipality that for the last twenty years there has not been such disaster in the village Sveneti. There is hard socio-economic situation in the villages. The protest actions held in front of regional administrative building of Shida Kartli well demonstrate the problem. The population is requesting creation of state commission for studying the damage and payment of compensations.

Givi Kharkheli, Kirbali resident: “We are in the conflict zone. We have nothing here. Our village is very poor. Our harvest was entirely destroyed by the hailstone. There is not enough water to harvest more so we are requesting compensation for what was destroyed.”

Ioseb Akopashvili, resident of village Zerta: “Everything is entirely destroyed. We are all here and waiting for government reaction. Most of us have bank loans. We need help to either postpone the payment of interest rates or do something else. These people have nothing.”

Almost all families from the village Rekha hold bank loans for agricultural business. Giorgi Kerdikoshvili managed to buy the weed killers by 600 dollars taken from the bank. “I used 600 dollars taken from the bank for buying the weed killers. We have nothing more left to live,” – he states with humanrights.ge.

Like Kerdikoshvili, other local people also state that the disaster was so strong that almost hundred percent of their harvest was destroyed.

Davit Bichiashvili, resident of the village Rekha: “Village Rekha is in big trouble. We need help.”

After half-hour hailstone, roofs of several houses were also destroyed in the village Rekha. The electricity wires were also damaged and for several hours electricity was not provided in the village.

The representatives of central and local government visited the village to study the problems on the spot. They saw severe situation on the spot. The vineyards, vegetable and fruit gardens are entirely destroyed.

“The damage is so huge that we will need several weeks to count it,” – deputy Minister of Agriculture Otar Danelia made this statement after studying the situation on the spot in the village Rekha.

Otar Danelia, Deputy Minister of Agriculture: “A commission was created which will count this damage. The human resources are also mobilized in various neighboring regions as the damage is too big and existing staff will not be sufficient to assess it. In the first place, it is a priority to assess everything adequately and professionally.”

Zurab Rusishvili, Shida Kartli Governor: “It was necessary to create bigger commission as they will enter every garden and count the damage that every resident sufferred.”

According to the statement of Governor of Gori municipality, Papuna Koberidze, the commission to study the damages has already been created and the payment of compensations will be started soon.

Papuna Koberidze, Governor of Gori Municipality: “The state is doing its best; the central and local governments are both involved with us. The specialists from other municipalities of Shida Kartli region have been provided to protect interests of people as much as we can. The damage will be counted and when we have final picture, report will be presented to the central government.”

Considering the scale of the disaster, the damage exceeds several millions. There is not enough money for compensation in Gori municipality. According to the majoritarian deputy of Gori municipality, Soso Vakhtangashvili, he will raise the issue in the Parliament and the damage will be compensated from the central budget.

The villages damaged by the disaster are divided in four zones according to the inflicted damage. The commission has already started studying the individual damage. The sufferers were requesting compensations before the elections. According to them, after the elections they might be neglected like those who were damaged by natural disaster one year ago and were never compensated by the government despite the given promises.