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Senebi – village without water, gas and road

December 5, 2016
 
Gulnur Kazimova

You can meet people with muddy boots and buckets fetching water from the spring to their homes in the village of Senebi, Bolnisi municipality. Winding and muddy road in this remote village tells about hard lives of the local inhabitants. 

78-year-old Jelal Bayramov from Senebi village said the public transport does not run in the village because drivers do not want to destroy their cars on the bad roads.

“I have never seen the road paved in this village. It gets so muddy in winter that cars cannot move. There is neither market nor pharmacy in the village. We usually travel to Marneuli or Bolnisi to buy medicines and pay 20 GEL for taxi or ask passers-by to give a lift,” Jelala Bayramova said.

38 families live in Senebi. The village has neither gas nor water. Jafar Jafarov said the youth leave the village because of bad living conditions and go to work abroad.

“We have to pay 350-400 GEL for one truck of firefood. Young people cannot find jobs here; they cannot earn their living by daily work. Consequently they have to travel to Ukraine or to Russia to work.”
There are hand-made tanks and buckets full of water in every yard. Mushkunaz Bayramova said she and her family members have to walk 3 kilometers every day to fetch water. 
“We use donkeys to bring water in big tanks but fetch 10-liter buckets by ourselves; we should have water at least to wash vessel and drink tea. You can live without food but cannot survive without water. 
Salimanazi, 80 years old, said she has lived until the wedding of her great grandchildren but has not seen water and gas in the village. 

“Nobody cares about us. All my pension was spent on the firewood. We could not live in cold. The government does not care about people; they need us only during elections to get our votes. Nobody assist us. Let them at least repair the road so that people could travel easily and earn money.”
There are huge tanks to collect rain water in every yard. Suraya Jafarova said she uses the spring water only to cook dinner, wash vessel and drink. She washes cloths with rain water.

“We rely on the God’s help. We made a tank to collect rain water at least to wash cloths. We water the gardens with this water. In drought fruit-trees get dry in the gardens. We are happy that my daughters got married in Bolnisi and they no longer live in similar conditions. We do not have a shop to buy bread either.”
Bolnisi municipality deputy governor Longinoz Gasanov said local authority does not plans to repair infrastructure in Senebi village in near future.

“Senebi is mountainous village and the road really needs reconstruction but nothing is planned yet. As for the irrigation water, the village gets it. There is a technical problem that originates during equal distribution of the irrigation water. 60% of the Bolinisi municipality population is already supplied with gas. All villages will be supplied with gas in near future. When it will be done in Senebi, I do not know.”
Senebi is 18 kilometers away from Bolnisi but the locals think they live hundreds kilometers away from the municipality center and are abandoned by the God and government. 

The article was prepared in the frame of the project implemented by Human Rights House Tbilisi with financial support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands in Georgia. HRHT bears sole responsibility for the content of the article. The article does not necessarily reflect the views of the donor.

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