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Monument of culture heritage is collapsing

January 31, 2018
 
Natia Gogolashvili

“Our life is under danger and not only our lives. This building creates threats for all passers-by,” resident of Isani Street # 2 Nana Sarishvili said. The residential building in Isani street # 2, Tbilisi is monument of culture heritage. It was constructed in 1885; the building is damaged and is ruining every day: water is leaking from the roof, there is threat that balcony and walls will fall down. The house shall be immediately dismantled and restored to the original design.

“Nobody ever assisted us under any authorities. They have not even repaired roof since the Soviet Union. The inhabitants were taking care of this building until now. As the chairperson of the building fellowship, in 2014 I implemented the reinforcement project based on the City Hall’s co-funding program. At that period I discovered that our building had status of culture heritage. Afterwards, I received permission from the National Agency for Reservation of Culture Heritage but the rehabilitation of the building was very expensive and the municipal administration could not help us. I appealed the Fund and Mr. Lasha Abashidze, who was head of the fund. He arrived on the place, examined the house and said it was impossible to rehabilitate the building,” Nana Sarashvili, chairperson of the fellowship said.

Nana Sarashvili said the Tbilisi Development Fund announced competition for the rehabilitation of the house. In 2016, the winner company Ltd Ikorta 2007 created a new project. According to the new project, the house shall be dismantled and restored to original design. Sarashvili said, the construction was due to start in 2017 but the City Hall did not envisage the respective funds in the budget. Neither 2018 budget have respective funds. 

Nana Sarashvili applied to Human Rights Center for legal aid. HRC lawyer Dimitri Nozadze said the Center several times petitioned the Tbilisi City Hall; the Tbilisi Development Fund and the Isani municipality administration are also informed about the problem.

“Human Rights Center believes it is important to defend the right to life of the inhabitants of the Isani Street # 2. At the same time, the organization believes that the monument of cultural heritage must not be destroyed and its dismantling and further rehabilitation shall be conducted in accordance to the law, based on the project approved by the National Agency for Cultural Heritage Reservation of Georgia,” Dimitri Nozadze said.
In accordance to the survey carried out by the Tbilisi Development Fund, the cultural heritage monument in Isani Street # 2 has received 70 points in the rating of the cultural heritage monuments. It means the building must be immediately dismantled and restored to its original design. 

Tbilisi Development Fund states this building is linked with the other three buildings located next to it. Consequently, it is necessary to allocate huge funds to renovate not only the residential building in Isani # 2 but several other buildings next to it. As the representatives of the Fund state, creating the project does not mean that the buildings will be immediately renovated. They said the building in Isani street #2 will not be left without attention.

“The state of the building in Isani street demonstrate those challenges and problems, which are very much common in the part of Old Tbilisi,” executive director of Human Rights Center Aleko Tskitishvili said.

“There are a lot of monuments in alarming conditions. They create threats to inhabitants. It is important to implement the planned projects immediately. People, who live in those buildings, live under the threat every day. It is violation of their rights, because tragedy may happen any moment. Consequently, we request to immediately implement the project, which was worked out and approved by the Tbilisi Development Fund, which aims to dismantle and restore this building to its old architect design. Also, it is important that the National Agency for Cultural Heritage Reservation of Georgia monitored implementation of the project. It is urgently important for the inhabitants of the building and for the city in general to maintain the culture heritage and to defend rights of the citizens,” Aleko Tskitishvili said.

Until the state finds the financial resources for the restoration of the house, 6 families living in Isani street # 2 are living under the threat of being caught under ruins. 

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