Inga Gvasalia, Samegrelo
In the village of Khorshi in Senaki district people have to carry out the dead person by tractor because there is no bridge on the River Zandzga. Children go to school with towels if the river is not flooded and can cross the river on foot. If the river is flooded, children cannot go to school.
“Ambulances cannot drive across the river. We send cart or horse for a doctor and nurse to assist the sick person. Sometimes we even had to carry the doctor on our back. A car cannot drive across the river when it is not flooded. People cannot burry out the dead people without tractor. 20 families live on this bank of the river. In bad weather children cannot go to school and will remain uneducated. They have to walk 3 kilometers to school. We have lived in this situation for several years already. We petitioned to every institution, met every official; they come and promise us their assistance during each pre-election campaign but nothing has changed yet. We met the district governor 4 years ago; we even signed some documents but it changed nothing,” said the villager Mate Todadze.
“The river destroyed the bridge during the soviet time. The children have to walk 10 kilometers instead 3 to get to the school through roundabouts. But now we cannot allow them to take the long road because it runs through the forest and we are afraid of wolves. A commission arrived here from the district administration; they said 2 million GEL is necessary for the construction of the river. How can it cost so much? Everybody deceives us before elections but as soon as they occupy the positions, they forget about us,” complained Rezo Chitava.
“To tell the truth, in the soviet time when a child missed lessons, teachers used to visit families to find out the reason. Today, nobody cares about it. We are washed out people instead of professors in Tbilisi!” said Armina Chitava (about 5-6 years ago President Mikheil Saakashvili called the actors, writers, professors and famous people “washed out” people because they opposed his policy).
After the request of the eldest person of the village and father of 18 children Varden Chitava we crossed the flooding river by horse and reached the village. He has both his legs amputated and is sitting in the wheelchair.
Varden Chitava: “I fought in the Great Patriotic War. I am almost 86. I had fragments of grenade in the legs and then gangrene started. I have 12 sons and none of them wants to live here because there is no road. They have not managed to construct this bridge! I have sent three petitions to the local authority. Once I petitioned to the regional governor Gorozia too. Our MP Misabishvili told me they would resettle those 20 families on the other bank of the river. In Senaki one sack of wheat flour costs 50 GEL and we have to sell at least 10 hens to buy it. You know that our pigs died of plague. We cannot produce tea because the tea plantation was pulled out. We eat gomi (porridge of corn-flour) and hardly survive on it. We have iron materials and maybe the government will use them to construct the new bridge.”
We were told in the village that local residents saved the iron materials of the old bridge. They have saved the construction materials which were brought to the village for the construction of the bridge in 1991-92.
Part of the population agrees to construct at least footbridge while another part is against it. They think the footbridge will resolve their problem only partly.
We met the commissary of the Khorshi community Tengiz Matakheria to hear his opinion about the problem. He said: “The villagers petitioned to the district administration last year. The latter sent their letter to the regional administration. Finally the letter was sent to Tbilisi and the local authority was waiting for the reply. The local budget cannot fund the bridge construction; it will cost at least half million GEL. About 20 families live there. Two years ago roundabouts were constructed to allow the people to reach the central road. But the people petitioned to the district administration this year again. I am not sure but the reply to their letter was – your question is under discussion.”
20 families living on the other bank of the river has been urging the local authority for help since 1991. The problem will not be resolved this year either. The old promises are still in force but residents of Khorshi village have been fed up with the promises for 20 years already.
Single mandate MP from Senaki district Guram Misabishvili told us: “Nothing has been constructed in Georgia before 2003. Since then roads were constructed almost everywhere; the roads and bridges were built and the problems were more or less resolved. Now this problem is very urgent but we cannot do everything together. We do everything gradually. I know that people have a serious problem but the construction of this bridge requires serious sums. The department of roads and the government have information about the problem. I hope it will be eradicated next year. Every activity is already planned for this year and I do not think they will do anything about the Khorshi village. I do not want to give false promises to the people. We have very meager budget and nobody speaks about the eviction. If they want to resettle from the area, we could assist them. The state will give them alternative accommodations. So, their living conditions will improve too. It was only our idea and nobody has made a decision yet. The problem will be easily resolved if they agree on footbridge.”
It is interesting who thought of resettling the residents of Khorsha village in a new place where new houses will be constructed and new plots will be assigned to them. They can construct several bridges with the money they would spend on the construction of the new district for the 20 families.
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