Health-harming drinking water Lado Bitchashvili, Shida Kartli

Now, laboratory tests also confirmed that the drinking water in Khidistavi village, Gori municipality is harmful for health. Human Rights Center petitioned the state bodies with the request to examine the quality of the drinking water in Khidistavi after several residents of the village complained about the drinking water, which poisoned their underage children. The locals stated that similar incidents have become more frequent in the past year. 

On July 8, 2019 HRC Shida Kartli office lawyer Aleksi Merebashvili petitioned the Gori Municipality City Hall with the request to study and resolve the drinking water problem in Khidistavi. On October 24, 2019, the municipality city hall answered:

“We would like to notify that Gori municipality city hall addressed the LEPL Gori Municipal Service of Drinking Water Systems, Sewer Systems, Melioration, Boring Wells and Pump Stations with regard to your letter and they informed us that the LEPL permanently chlorinates the drinking water supplied from the main water source in Khidistavi,” the letter of the municipality city was enclosed with the correspondence from the head of the LEPL, who is responsible for the supply of adequate quality drinking water supply in the municipality.

Head of the LEPL Gori Municipal Service of Drinking Water Systems, Sewer Systems, Melioration, Boring Wells and Pump Stations Bondo Maruashvili wrote:

“The drinking water supplied from the main reservoir of Khidistavi village is chlorinated every day, during 24 hours. In addition to that, we disinfected the reservoir and pipes in accordance to the acting regulations. If there is any incident in the system, our LEPL immediately responds to similar facts and excludes pollution of the drinking water in the village. Consequently, the allegation of the organization in their letter about the pollution of drinking water in the villages of municipality and particularly in Khidistavi is absolutely groundless. Our office systematically controls the drinking water together with the specialists of the National Food Agency, who never delivered negative test results. As for the water supply in Khidistavi public school, the school is not supplied from the general water system of the village but they have individual well in the yard. Considering that, we believe that the petition of Human Rights Center’s Shida Kartli office was prepared without substantial knowledge of the real situation in the village and we request them to apologize to the LEPL for their groundless accusations,” Bondo Maruashvili wrote in his letter to the Gori municipality mayor and enclosed the test results of the drinking water from Khidistavi. According to those tests, the drinking water in Khidistavi is of good quality.

Human Rights Center could not trust the test results provided by the Gori municipality city hall and on November 1, 2019 organization petitioned the National Food Agency with the request to test the drinking water in Khidistavi. The results of the laboratory analysis carried out by the National Food Agency based on HRC petition are absolutely different from the ones received from the LEPL. According to the test results, the drinking water in Khidistavi is not epidemiologically safe. 

“On November 12, 2019, representatives of the Shida Kartli regional office of the National Food Agency took samples of the drinking water in Khidistavi for laboratory analysis in the following objects: the main source of drinking water in the village, from the tap in the kitchen of the kindergarten and from the tap in the kitchen of the public school. The examination protocols # 2701; 2702; 2703 (dated by November 15, 2019) of the G. Natadze Sanitary, Hygiene and Medical Ecology Scientific Research Institute showed that the drinking water is not epidemiologically safe; namely: coliforms, E.coli and Faecalis were discovered in the main source of drinking water system in the village and in the drinking water collected in the kindergarten; only coliforms were discovered in the water collected in the public school. According to the Government’s technical regulations, no coliforms, e.coli and faecalis shall be discovered in the drinking water in Georgia,” the letter of the National Food Agency to the HRC reads.

HRC lawyer Aleksi Merebashvili said that instead starting the work to eradicate the problems the head of the LEPL, responsible for supplying the municipality village with adequate quality drinking water, tried to find out who had applied the nongovernmental organization about the polluted drinking water in the village. Aleksi Merebashvili calls on the Gori municipality city hall to resolve the problem of the drinking water in Khidistavi, as it is harmful for the health.

“In July, this year, we petitioned the Gori municipality city hall and informed that inhabitants of Khidistavi village complained about poor quality drinking water. There were facts when water poisoned people. Soon, representatives of the LEPL, responsible for the municipal drinking water system, visited our office to protest our petition and blamed us in the dissemination of false accusations and demanded Human Rights Center to apologize to them. Regardless the fact, we requested the City Hall to examine the situation and in parallel to that we petitioned the LEPL National Food Agency to take laboratory tests of the drinking water in Khidistavi. The results showed that the Khidistavi village population and the kindergarten are supplied with the drinking water, which is polluted with coliforms, E.colis and faecalis. The public school is also supplied with the drinking water which is polluted with general coliforms. We have already sent letter to the municipality city hall with the request to inform the village population about the violation, to immediately resolve the problem to supply the entire village, kindergarten and public school with safe drinking water. We also requested to impose strict disciplinary sanctions against the representatives of the LEPL and to elaborate effective system to control the quality of the drinking water in the municipality,” HRC lawyer Aleksi Merebashvili said.

Human Rights Center has already sent the laboratory test results of the National Food Agency to the Gori municipality city hall.