Residents of Village Tivi Blame Government in Negligence

Lela Khechoshvili, Kakheti

The residents of village Tivi of Kvareli municipality ask help from the Government. Because of the economic situation, the youth is leaving the village and moving to Dagestan. The village is becoming empty. 

The village Tivi has no natural gas; also, there is no medical unit. A doctor arrives from Akhalsopeli twice a week. According to the locals, the representatives of the Government remember about village Tivi only during elections. 

According to the school director of Tivi, Giorgi Khatiashvili, now there are 30 students and 23 teachers in the school: “Tivi is a large village. Before they started moving to Dagestan, there were 700 students in the school. Now there are only elderly people in the village”.

According to Khatiashvili, there is no kindergarten in Tivi, but they opened a pre-school education group with the help of Poles: 9 children of ages 3-4 are studying in the pre-school education group. It is a very good program, it prepares children for school, teaches them literacy”. 

The population of village Tivi lives by livestock farming and sheep breeding. According to the locals, the pedestrian bridge, which connects Tivi with Akhalsopeli, is damaged. The bypass is too far. 

“We addressed the administrative body of Kvareli for several times to repair the bridge, however the problem remains unsolved. It is dangerous to cross the bridge during a rain. They should at least gravel the central road and make asphalt. We have no natural gas and drinking water. Nobody pays attention to us,”- said the local of Tivi, Zelimkhan Zelimkhanov. 

According to the local resident Murad Aliev, they brought electricity to the village from ecomigrants who were settled from Adjara. However, 100 volts of energy burned their electro-technical products and it is a problem to turn on TV. 

The village cannot even build a mosque, because they could not register the land and for prayer the locals of Tivi have to go to the mosque on the cemetery where women are not allowed. 

“Women pray at home. We go to mosque only once during fasting, other times it is not allowed for women to go there”, - says Eva Chuganova. 

The locals also have problems to get documentations. Since they have no birth certificates, they cannot get passports either.

According to the representative of the Kvareli municipality Governor, Temur Samkurashvili, there is a drinking water in the village, as well as outdoor lights and he has no idea why the locals leave the village. 

“Young people go to Dagestan after they graduate from school. They have freedom of choice. Journalists are nagging me by asking why the young people are leaving. They have stupid information; I do not know why they are leaving. They have double citizenships and maybe that is why they leave. Commercial company “Socar Gas” provides the natural gas. When it will be Tivi’s turn, they will get the natural gas. As for the central road, it has never been paved, but we have graveled it. When the Ministry of Infrastructure has appropriate funds, then we will take care of road problems as well,”- said Samkurashvili. 

The locals of village Tivi ask help from the Government, the deputy governor of Kvareli municipality, Malkhaz Khizanishvili promised them to find out everything.