27 villages were hailed in Kakheti from April 1 to June 10

Reginfo.ge 

Although the anti-hail system is working in Kakheti region, 27 villages were already hailed in the region from April 1 to June 10 this year.

The heavy hail of June 10 damaged the villages of Giorgitsminda and Ninotsminda in Sagarejo municipality. As the deputy municipal governor Tamar Garsevanishvili told Reginfo, the hail damaged 100% of vine-yards, fruit-gardens, vegetable gardens and corn-fields. 

“The heavy hail lasted about 15 minutes together with strong wind. They were shooting rockets but it could not save the gardens,” Tamar Garsevanishvili said. 

Attorney of the Sagarejo municipal governor in Giorgitsminda village Giorgi Tchiaberashvili said the village damaged about 80% of vine-yards and vegetable gardens in the village.

The anti-hail system, which is managed by the state military scientific technical center Delta under subordination of the Ministry of Defense, has been in action since April 1 and according to the official information, the rockets have been shot to neutralize the hail-clouds. Despite that, about 30 villages were already hailed in the region for the past two months. 

On May 28, the villages of Jugaani, Tibaani and Bodbiskhevi of the Signagi municipality were hailed and 70-80% of the vegetable gardens and vine-yards were damaged.

On May 20, the evening hail damaged the villages of Tchandari, Vejini, Dzirkoki, Bakurtsikhe and Kolagi in Gurjaani municipality. The Vejini village was particularly hailed, which devastated 50-60% of the harvest.

On the same day, the watermelon gardens, vine-yards and vegetable gardens were hailed in the villages of Sakobo and Chaduniani in Lagodekhi municipality. The victimized population blocked the Lagodekhi-Tbilisi central motorway with the request to compensate the loss. 

On May 20, the villages Napareuli, Ruispiri and Ikalto were hailed in Telavi municipality. The hail mostly damaged the vine-yards and strawberry gardens.

On May 14, the villages Chalaubani, Melaani, Arashenda and Jimiti were hailed in Gurjaani municipality. The heavy hail of May 7-8 damaged eight villages in Akhmeta and Gurjaani municipalities. The villages of Kistauri, Akhshani, Zemo Khodasheni and Chabinaani were damaged in Akhmeta and villages of Mukuzani, Velistsikhe, Akhasheni and Chumlaki were hailed in Gurjaani.

The anti-hail system was first installed in Kakheti in 2015, which cost more than 15 million GEL. The main purpose of the system was to protect 600 000 hectares of agricultural land of Kakheti region from the hail.

 

The purpose of the hail-preventing system is to reduce size of the hail balls or to turn them into rain by spreading special reagent (silver iodide) in the clouds before the hail balls are formed. 

Similar systems work in several countries, like: Bulgaria, China, Argentine and more.

Nowadays, 80 single rocket systems are installed in different parts of Kakheti region to protect gardens from hail.

The anti-hail system stopped functioning in Georgia 25 years ago. That time system “Alazani”, which was used from 1960 to 1990, was the system of primitive technologies and it was not highly effective. It polluted the harvest with lead iodide.