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People Urgently Need Bridge in Shuagele

June 18, 2008

Maka Malakmadze, Batumi

Nearly twenty families in the village of Shuagele in Kobuleti district are split-off from the rest of the village because there is no of bridge to get across the river. The people had constructed a bridge on their own but during heavy rains the river washed the bridge away. Not the previous or current government has managed to resolve the problem facing the villagers.

Two large logs are wired and long bamboo branch is used as a side rail for the bridge. The villagers cobbled a homemade bridge but it is not well-constructed and heavy rain can damage or wash it away easily. Locals constantly joke their bridge is always a work in progress.  “When it is raining, the river washes the bridge away; but then we piece it back together its place for a quick fix. If we do not repair it, then we will have to wade across the river; so we would rather carry heavy timbers to have a solid bridge. Not that long ago we carried the coffin of a dead person across the bridge with the support of ropes. We have to cross the river to order to reach the cemetery,” said Soslan Abashidze, a local resident. People recall that they have never had proper bridge in the village.

Villagers call the river “Tskali” (water in Georgian), which is not all that original of a name. “In rain you have to take off your shoes and wade in the water, and you can imagine what is happening in the winter. We are locked in houses and this lifestyle cannot last for ever. People die or marry in the winter too and we have to be able to be in contact with them,” said locals.

     

The residents of the village appealed to the Kobuleti district authority several times but there has been no result. “We hoped they would resolve the problem before elections but public officials did not promise to do anything this year too,” said the disappointed residents. “They said they will consider our problem in the 2009 budget. We met Koba Khabazi, member of the Supreme Council of Adjara Autonomous Republic. Otar Khinikadze, single mandate candidate from the National Movement, visited our village too, anyway their arrivals has not changed anything.”

However, before the elections the holes in the village road were filled in with the ruins of the buildings. Residents of Shuagele do not like the filled in hole claiming “we cannot drive cars along the road because of problem of potholes and only tank can move about. Now they have thrown concrete rubble and iron scrap materials into the holes.”


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