Life in the Village along the Dividing Line

Nino Devidze, Shida Kartli

Several months ago, Russian soldiers installed signposts indicating state border of South Ossetia and barbwires nearby Ghogheti village, Kareli District. 

77 families live in Ghogheti village. After barbwires were set up in the village, part of local residents remained without their plots because they are located on the other side of the fence. Another part of the population cannot cultivate plots because they did not receive vouchers in the frame of the state program for farmers. Only those farmers received vouchers, who own less than 1, 25 hectares of land. Only 30 out of 77 families satisfied these criteria.

“Half of my plot is located on the other side of the barbwire. Besides that, I can approach the border only from the distance of 50 meters. They promise to resolve all problems but nobody mentions our plots. They are not saying whether the state will compensate us the lost land,” local resident Kako Shatirishvili said.

There are not many young people in the village. Local Nona Kharguani said soon everybody will abandon Ghogheti village. “There are no chances of employment in the village and young people have to leave the village. Main income of the local population is social aid and pension.”

However, social agency refused to grant social allowance to 97-years-old woman Olga Nioradze:  “I applied for social allowance but they did not give because I have cattle and bees.”

Besides material problems, residents of Ghogheti village complain about lack of medical office. They have to travel 14 kilometers to Kareli to visit a doctor.

Villagers complain about lack of water supply too. “We cannot drink this water; old people cannot fetch drinking water from the long distance and have to drink this polluted one,” local Tamar Nozadze said.

Village attorney Tamaz Beruashvili claims the drinking water is not polluted. “The state shall ensure good water-supply for the village population and this water is good for drinking; simply population prefers to drink spring water.”

Another resident of the village Irma Kochievi thinks the main problem of the village is lack of public school and kindergarten. “I am mostly bothered about the lack of kindergarten and school in the village. My child is the only first-grade pupil in the village and we have to walk 6 kilometers everyday to school. Besides that, my child has health problems and while others have already finished learning alphabet, we have studied only five letters. According to the rules, he must take special education program but here we cannot dream about it.”

Police is the only hope for Gogeti residents. “Police officers are taking care of us; otherwise we would have abandoned the village long ago. We have to travel to the neighboring village to buy household items and products; no transport runs here; police officers take us to the next village or buy products for us. If we did not have police officers, we would have had serious problems,” Irma Kochievi said.

Village attorney, Tamaz Beruashvili promised locals to resolve problems till the end of the year. “Gasification of the village has already started. I think, every family will have free gas till May, 2014. The government promised to rehabilitate road and I hope they will do it till the end of the year. As for agricultural vouchers, we issue them on the people who have small plots but I hope the state will assist those farmers too, who own two and five hectares of land.”