Former Director Awaiting the Judgment

In July 2007 former director of Batumi Water Supply Company Vladimer Mikeladze was awarded with Deed for his professional activities. One month later, law enforcers launched a criminal case against him. The prosecutor claims Vladimer Mikeladze knew that water was polluted and did not inform the local population about it; that means the lives of people were in danger because of his mistake.

Natia Rokva

From June 16 to June 25 in 2007 several people were placed in Batumi Hospital for Infectious Diseases. The doctors presumed that “diagnose for everybody was water infection.” The court bailed the director of the Water Supply Company with 25 000 GEL and he was released from pre-trial detention. In accordance to the Article 147 of the Criminal Code of Georgia (Mikeladze is charged under that article) “hiding the information about the fact or event that threatens the life and health of a person or the environment is punished with the imprisonment from three to seven years.”

There are two children and three women mentioned as victims in the case materials. “At that time, patients from the villages were also placed in the hospital. As for hiding the information, we managed to find the evidence at the local TV Company where the director made statement to the local population and suggested them to avoid drinking the water without having it boiled first because it was polluted and could threaten their lives,” said Ramin Papidze, the attorney. According to the lawyer, Adjara TV Company wrote to the defense side that the recording of the statement “was damaged and was not preserved in the archive.”  However, the investigation managed to get hold of the video-recoding and it is included as evidence of the accuser side in the case materials. “TV Company Channel 25th in Adjara confirmed that at that period the director of the Water Supply Company really made a statement about the polluted water on TV.”

The video-recording of the Adjara Television was done in June of 2007. The protocol on the video-recording states that Vladimer Mikeladze, director of the Water Supply Company, Ramaz Surmanidze, head of the Supervision Department for Safe Food within the Ministry of Agriculture, Mamuka Nakashidze, Minister of Healthcare in Adjara Autonomous Republic and Paata Imnadze, head of National Center for Disease Control informed the population that “heavy rains polluted the drinking water and water supply was cut off in the city.”

After the water was released in the system all abovementioned officials suggested the population to drink only boiled up water. As for the victims, they stated at the trial they had not watched TV at that time and had no information about the pollution of water. The doctors presumed that the diagnosis of the patients was water infection.

Rezo Didmanidze, engineer of the source building of the water system in Chakvi, was interrogated at the trial. He said Vladimer Mikeladze had informed the population about the polluted water on TV. Ramaz Surmanidze confirmed the information as well.

Was the drinking water really polluted in Batumi? The implemented expertise demonstrated that drinking water was really polluted. The attorney of the accused claims the expertise was illegal “because Supervision Department for Safe Food within the Ministry of Agriculture in Adjara Autonomous Republic and the lab assistants of the department did not have corresponding accreditation; that means, they were not authorized to carry out the expertise of the water. Despite that, the expertise relied on their conclusions.”

Preliminary investigation finished. Judge Temur Katamadze at the Batumi City Court is discussing the case. Lab assistants will be interrogated at the next trial.

The director of the Water Supply Company denies the accusations against him.

Source: Newspaper “Batumelebi”