Gilauri to discover expense of flood damage in Georgia

On June 22 Prime Minister Nika Gilauri met with the Regional Governors to calculate the full cost of damage after extreme weather hit Georgia. As PM Gilauri proclaimed on Tuesday, each rain-affected region would receive Governmental assistance from the reserve fund. The Deputy Minister of Finance Papuna Petriashvili, who also attended the meeting, said that “the Governmental funds have been created precisely for financing such damages thus the necessary amount will be provided from the state budget for each region”.

According to information released by Davit Kirkitadze, the Governor of Kvemo Kartli, around GEL 2 million will be needed for eradication of the damage in his region. “The heavy weather affected the villages of Martkopi, Tetritskaro Municipality and Tsalka and we were promised that the defined amount of money would be issued for rehabilitation of roads and strengthening the riverbanks,” Kirkitadze said, hoping to deal with all the problems in a rapid way.

As Zurab Arsoshvili the Governor of Shida Kartli told The Messenger the teams working at the Rikoti pass have managed to give release some of the water which had damaged the local restaurant. Worried of the fatal consequences of the extreme weather, Arsoshvili expressed his gratitude towards the other regional units and Tbilisi Municipality for their great support in road clearing activities.

“Unfortunately the sediment has destroyed the restaurant at Rikoti and killed six people,” the Governor said worriedly. Describing the great damage to the region, Arsoshvili told us that water pumping facilities are being provided at the houses of local people. Roads, bridges, water and canalization systems have all been affected by the heavy rain but what is the most important task for the Shida Kartli region is to restore infrastructure for easing communication among the local people at this stage.”

Mtskheta-Mtianeti region, which was also badly affected during the recent rains, will need about GEL 700 000 for rehabilitation activities. As the First Deputy Governor of the region Givi Amirkhanashvili told us, all the restoration works have been started at Mtskheta-Mtianeti. “Heavy machinery has been mobilized at the most weather-affected territories and the road cleaning and constructing activities have already been launched at six villages to prepare the areas in case of further extreme,” Amirkhanashvili stated.

The damaged 10th kilometer of the Tskhvarichamia-Tbilisi road was also partly opened on Wednesday morning. As the Deputy Governor told The Messenger at the next stage of the road rehabilitation process, all the electricity masts will be restored and the locals will still receive electricity. Detailed information about the exact cost of the damage in individual regions will be released by the Georgian Government in a couple of days but at about GEL 10 million will be issued from the Governmental reserve fund at this stage.