Lado Bitchashvili, Shida Kartli
On August 4, the residents of Kheltubani village in Gori municipality blocked the Gori-Mejvriskhevi motorway with the request to supply village with the irrigation water. The participants of the rally requested meeting with the local authority and solution of the problem.
“Is it normal that a resident of Kheltubani village has to buy cucumbers and tomatoes in the market? We cannot grow vegetables because we do not have irrigation water,” Vakhtang Termakozashvili said.
Police officers arrived at the rally before the representatives of the local authority and called on the protesters to stop the blockade. The Shida Kartli regional governor and employees of the melioration service met the rally participants.
Representatives of the authority said there are two reasons of the irrigation water problem. Number one – it is hot summer, which causes insufficiency of the water and the second – the main source of the Zonkari reservoir and Tiriponi channel are located in the occupied territory, and the villages in the Georgia controlled territory cannot get enough irrigation water from there.
“The emergency office of the melioration service is working in emergency regime. We will study the situation on the place and do our best to assist the population,” Shida Kartli regional governor Kakha Samkharadze said.