Journalistic Investigation – 60 Million, 6 Years, and 5 Villages in Gardabani Still Without Water

The implementation of projects for 24-hour water supply to five villages in Gardabani Municipality began six years ago. These villages are: Norio, Martkopi, Vaziani, Akhali Samgori, Akhalsopeli.

As in the past, drinking water in these villages is mostly purchased or brought from other settlements. Water suitable only for household purposes is often supplied on an unstable schedule.

QvemoQartli.ge visited all five villages, saw the progress of the water system installation project, the situation of the locals, and got acquainted with the official documents surrounding the issue.

Let’s start from the beginning, that is, from 2016.

In 2016, the state transferred the aforementioned water supply project to Gardabani Municipality free of charge. On the basis of which, on May 31, 2017, the municipality concluded an agreement with the United Water Supply Company of Georgia LLC through simplified procurement. The goal was to perform the first stage of the water supply network. The total cost of these works was 8 million GEL.

The works were supposed to be completed on December 29, 2017, although this deadline was postponed several times.

Information on the issue is provided in the State Audit Report: Compliance Audit of Activities for 2018-2019

“The works were performed by the subcontractor of the United Water Supply Company of Georgia LLC – ComfortMesh XXI LLC. According to the submitted documents, during the construction process, the executing company identified shortcomings in the design and cost accounting documentation, and JSC “ENERGO-PRO Georgia” was also unable to provide electricity supply.

Due to the above reasons, the completion date of the works was extended and postponed three times – until May 31, 2018, however, the works could not be completed within this period either. By this stage, work worth 4,608.3 thousand GEL had been completed, which was reimbursed by the City Hall.

Finally, based on the supplier’s request, the Municipality terminated the contract on June 1, 2018, on the grounds that the design documentation required significant changes, which was confirmed by the supervising expert company – LLC “Optimal Group+”. Following the changes to the design documentation, in order to continue the works, on February 8, 2019, the municipality signed a new contract through simplified procurement with LLC “United Water Supply Company of Georgia” for the amount of 3,374.6 thousand GEL. At this stage, the works were also performed by the subcontractor LLC “ComfortMshen XXI”. The deadline for the completion of the works was set at December 8, 2019. On December 6, 2019, an agreement was signed between the parties, according to which the deadline for the completion of the works was extended until June 30, 2020. According to the submitted documents, the extension of the deadline for the delivery of the works was due to the fact that JSC “ENERGO-PRO Georgia” was unable to provide electricity supply during this period. Thus, given that the continuation of the works was decided by the same company, the contractor had sufficient time to resolve the shortcomings related to the electricity supply in advance. Finally, the supplier completed the works on June 30, 2020. On July 23, 2020, the municipality took over the work worth 3,324.3 thousand GEL. It is noteworthy that this completed the first stage of the water supply works.”

Also, according to the state audit report:

“Despite the fact that the water supply works lasted for 2 years and 6 months and 7,932.6 thousand GEL was spent, the issue of water supply to the population is still unresolved. Thus, the municipality should not have extended the deadline for the completion of the works to the supplier and should have charged a penalty of 0.02% of the cost of the uncompleted works for each overdue day. The penalty imposed on the supplier as of June 30, 2020 is more than 18 thousand GEL,” we read in the audit report.

Regarding the issue, the following comment was initially made at the “United Water Supply Company of Georgia”:

“The works of the first phase of the project were carried out by the United Water Supply Company. It was within the framework of a tripartite agreement. The mentioned project envisaged the arrangement of head structures. Arrangement of wells and corresponding high-pressure pipelines. It was the first stage, which in turn means that it was a constituent component of the entire project, after the completion of which 24-hour water supply should be provided to the population. After the completion of this first phase, uninterrupted water supply was not considered. After the completion of the mentioned phases, the population will be provided.

Akhali Samgori is the operating area of ​​​​the United Water Supply Company, where we will provide water to the population on a schedule. The project is being implemented by the Municipal Fund, including the metering part. After the completion of the above works, we will be able to have 24-hour water supply.

Martkopi, Norio, Vaziani, Akhli Samgori, Akhalsopeli – these are the five villages in Gardabani municipality where the population has been forced to buy drinking water for years.

Martkopi is one of the largest of these villages and has a population of over 7,000. Locals say that the most pressing problem in the village is the lack of drinking water. They have been waiting for the issue to be resolved for many years in vain.

48-year-old Giuli lives in the village of Martkopi with his family. He tells us that the project to solve the drinking water problem has been stopped several times and has now started again.

“There are areas where water meters have been installed, but they are not everywhere yet. We still do not have water, we are waiting. This is a miracle project, we are waiting for its completion, it has been almost a century and we have to live in such conditions. Martkopi is first of all a historical village, then it is very close to Tbilisi and everyone is surprised that there is no water.

At first, they worked for a while and then stopped, now active work is underway again and hopefully it will be completed soon. They say it should be ready in December, but I don’t know how true that is,” – Giuli, a resident of the village of Martkopi.

“They have already installed meters here. Hopefully, there will be water soon. We have had this problem for years, it is such a large village and there should be no water problem. They say it will be soon, I hope it will be. We buy drinking water, because the well we dug with our own efforts produced bad water and there was no point in using it,” – notes another local.

A similar situation exists in the village of Norio. More than 1,300 families live there. Locals say they are waiting for the completion of the water system installation work. However, due to the work being interrupted several times, the project does not seem to be finished. The population here has had to buy drinking water for years.

“Only the meters have been installed yet. We do not have water. It comes once every three days, but it does not come to me even then. I buy water for household use three times a month, and I have to buy it every day for drinking. Some neighbors have water on schedule, but especially now, when they are doing new wiring, the pipes are all damaged and dirty water is coming. They built tanks where the water should come from. In fact, active work began this summer, they started several years ago, but they ate money from the budget and did nothing at that time. Now they are working actively,” – local Luba Tsopurashvili

“ I buy one ton of water that costs 15 GEL and lasts only for two days. They say it is being built, but it is nowhere to be seen yet. Hopefully there will be water” – Norio resident

“They promise us and we will see what will happen. There is already metering in some places. Now, water comes from the mountains in old pipes, but we have this on a schedule and it is not enough for everyone. Here is the old tank here and from there it is distributed to the village. They also built new tanks here, which are empty for now” – Norio resident.

There is a similar water problem in the village of Vaziani, Gardabani Municipality. We visited the village on November 10. The number of residents there is about 3,000.

Some of the residents say that drinking water has never been in the village and has been brought from Tbilisi for years, while some buy it. As for the so-called technical water, it is supplied once every three or four days on a schedule, although they have not received this water for the last two months.

“We have no water. The work started last year and is still ongoing. We do not know when it will be. We buy drinking water and technical water is supplied once every three days on a schedule,” – a resident of Vaziani.

“We have not seen water for years. We buy both drinking and technical water. We used to have technical water, but now it has not been coming for two months. They are doing it now, but I do not know when it will be. We will see. They have also installed meters. It’s hard to even wash clothes, what can you do without water? Children need water, they go to school, to university… Now they are building wells and hopefully it will be there” – a local.

“Where we have water, we don’t have any at all. I have been living here for 11 years and I have not seen a drop of water. We buy drinking water, there is a very big problem in this regard. They have installed meters and there is nothing yet. They said it would be in October, but it is October and there is nothing to be seen. Doesn’t everyone have a car to bring water? We used to use canal water, but it is also dirty. People are suffering. They installed these meters and left me like this, I have to finish the job. I don’t know what will happen” – a local.

Locals in Akhalsopeli are also waiting for drinking water. We arrived here on October 10. We found abandoned construction materials at the site, including boxes and pipes for packing water meters. Also, the place where part of the wells were installed is left open, and the dug pits are part of the road.

Locals speak of the dishonest attitude of the company carrying out the work and note that the village views the 24-hour water supply project with distrust.

“We don’t have water. The situation has been terrible for many years. We haven’t had drinking water here since I was a child. Before, water used to come from Satskhenisi, and that too in one area. Then that stopped too.

Now, do you see these pipes?! The work has been going on for the past year and they are promising us something, but everyone in the village says that this work will never be completed. Because it has been started for years, then it stops again.

Whoever accepted this project would take the money and abandon their jobs. The project includes not only Akhalsopeli, but also other villages, and millions have been allocated for some reason. Besides, what they do is done terribly. First they dig, then they abandon it. A tractor comes and digs something else, then leaves, and it’s gone for a week. The workers are not paid, and that’s why the boys don’t come to work.

The mood in the village is hopeless. Now, we carry water from Tbilisi and some from Satskhenisi. Here, no matter which car you stop, everyone has water bottles lying around.

Maybe a miracle will happen and, as they say, the water will really be turned on by January. They said they tested it in advance, and it leaked in some places. The connections couldn’t be made properly. Some say that this material, pipes, is not of nutritional value and they dumped it in Vaziani, I don’t know how true it is,” says one of the locals.

“We don’t have drinking water. They’ve been doing it for 3-4 years but nothing is visible. We bring drinking water from the city or buy it. Instead of repairing my street, they ruined it – they dug up the ground and left holes, so neither cars nor people can pass through” – a local, a resident of Akhalsopeli.

Year-round meters have been installed in Akhal Samgori. According to locals, water is still supplied to the village once every three days.

“Water only comes once every three days on schedule. They promise us that there will be a 24-hour water supply. It comes at 2 pm and we have it until 8 pm or 9:30 pm. However, it’s not good for drinking, they warned us not to drink it. Some people use it, but we don’t, we still buy drinking water” – a local.

Regarding the water quality, we contacted the “United Water Supply Company of Georgia”. This company provides water supply to the population of the village of Akhali Samgori. As we read in their official letter, the monitoring is being carried out in stages in accordance with the regulations and it fully complies with the drinking water standards. In addition, the company responds:

“The Municipal Development Fund of Georgia is carrying out rehabilitation and metering works of reservoirs and distribution networks, after the completion of which the water supply of the above-mentioned village will significantly improve. In addition, the company plans to construct a surface water intake and treatment plant at the current headwaters of the village of Akhali Samgori, which is located in the village of Khashmi, Sagarejo Municipality, in order to increase the water flow. An electronic tender for the above works was announced on August 18, 2023 and the selection/evaluation process is currently underway.”

Considering that in most villages, during the course of the works, there was talk of a poor attitude on the part of the company, and we ourselves saw damaged sections of the road, neglect of safety rules in individual villages (video. Akhalsopeli), we also addressed this question to “Ins” LLC:

“There are cases when something similar happens. Maybe something else is planned there additionally or we found some fiber optic cable or something else and we had to change the route because we were unable to continue the works there. This does not mean anything in principle, it is a normal occurrence during the works” – Zaza Sikharulidze, Project Manager of the “Ins” Company.

Information update:

The Municipal Development Fund responded to the letter sent on October 11 regarding the issue on January 18. The agency informs us in a letter: “The aforementioned works, which are being carried out by “Insi” LLC, will be completed in 2024. Accordingly, the works are ongoing and the contracts have not expired. The aforementioned project has been agreed with all interested parties and the works are being carried out in accordance with the agreed project. The works are being monitored and supervised on site by the international supervisory company Eptisa Servicios de Ingenieria, S.L. In response to paragraph 6 of your letter, we inform you that the company implementing the works is directly responsible for the remuneration of the persons employed in the project. Accordingly, you can contact the contractor company regarding this issue.”

Authors: Nino Beridze, Manon Bokuchava

 

This publication has been produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of EU4IM beneficiary “Kvemo Kartli Media” and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

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