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Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Aug 22 2014
Mudslide damages South Caucasus infrastructure
22 August 2014 - 7:03pm
Georgy Kalatozishvili. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
The Georgian public these days is focusing on the tragedy in the
Darial Gorge rather than new charges brought against former president
Mikheil Saakashvili. The incident occurred on the Georgian military
road near the Russian border. According to employees of the local
customs office and hydroelectric power plant, the automatic alert
system established several months ago after a massive landslide
informed them about the coming mudslide.
This time the disaster was even more destructive. The Darial
hydroelectric power plant has been put out of action for ever, the
country's former minister of energy Nino Chkhobadze said. It would be
impossible to relaunch it. Of course it may be rebuilt, but it would
take years to do so. The Darial hydroelectric power plant was
providing the Kazbek region with power. The region, which borders
North Ossetia, may not be big, but it is very important.
Two people have died. One was a Georgian national and another one
Turkish. The River Terek brought their bodies to Russian territory.
Several hundreds of people, including monks from the local monastery,
border guards, customs officers and workers who were trying to
modernize the Georgian military road, which connects Russia with
Georgia and Armenia, have been evacuated with the help of helicopters.
The mudslide broke the Russian-Georgian-Armenian gas pipeline. As a
result, Armenia was cut off from gas supplies. The incident occurred
just before Georgian Prime MInister Irakli Garibashvili's visit to
Yerevan. It is no surprise that before leaving for Armenia the head of
the cabinet said that the restoration of the pipeline would be the
government's top priority. According to information acquired by
Vestnik Kavkaza, the restoration work has already started and on
Saturday night Armenia will be able to receive gas in the necessary
amounts. Still, the tragedy shows how fragile the infrastructure in
the Darial Gorge is.
This is also true for the Georgian military road - the only land route
connecting Georgia and Armenia with Russia. The highway was destroyed
on several sites and the reconstruction will take at least two weeks,
the cabinet says.
The scale of the catastrophe becomes clear when one takes into
consideration the fact that President Giorgi Margelashvili and the
minister of the interior visited the region three times in the last
several days. The president tried to calm local residents, who have
been cut off from the rest of the country and examine the restoration
works, which continue despite unfavourable weather conditions.
The catastrophe hit the Darial Gorge at the wrong time. The number of
tourists arriving from Russia was on the increase. All of them took
the Georgian military road. In addition to that, Georgian agricultural
products were delivered to Russia via the Georgian military road as
well. After Russia banned EU and US food imports, Georgian producers
thought they would be able to increase apple, pear and persimmon
supplies to the country.
However the main problem is that the people now feel that a road of
vital importance is being undermined over and over again. Scientists
believe it may been caused by the damaged environment of the Main
Caucasus Ridge, the gradual melting of ice on Kazbek and natural
processes, which cannot be altered by humans.
http://vestnikkavkaza.net/articles/economy/59154.html
Aug 22 2014
Mudslide damages South Caucasus infrastructure
22 August 2014 - 7:03pm
Georgy Kalatozishvili. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
The Georgian public these days is focusing on the tragedy in the
Darial Gorge rather than new charges brought against former president
Mikheil Saakashvili. The incident occurred on the Georgian military
road near the Russian border. According to employees of the local
customs office and hydroelectric power plant, the automatic alert
system established several months ago after a massive landslide
informed them about the coming mudslide.
This time the disaster was even more destructive. The Darial
hydroelectric power plant has been put out of action for ever, the
country's former minister of energy Nino Chkhobadze said. It would be
impossible to relaunch it. Of course it may be rebuilt, but it would
take years to do so. The Darial hydroelectric power plant was
providing the Kazbek region with power. The region, which borders
North Ossetia, may not be big, but it is very important.
Two people have died. One was a Georgian national and another one
Turkish. The River Terek brought their bodies to Russian territory.
Several hundreds of people, including monks from the local monastery,
border guards, customs officers and workers who were trying to
modernize the Georgian military road, which connects Russia with
Georgia and Armenia, have been evacuated with the help of helicopters.
The mudslide broke the Russian-Georgian-Armenian gas pipeline. As a
result, Armenia was cut off from gas supplies. The incident occurred
just before Georgian Prime MInister Irakli Garibashvili's visit to
Yerevan. It is no surprise that before leaving for Armenia the head of
the cabinet said that the restoration of the pipeline would be the
government's top priority. According to information acquired by
Vestnik Kavkaza, the restoration work has already started and on
Saturday night Armenia will be able to receive gas in the necessary
amounts. Still, the tragedy shows how fragile the infrastructure in
the Darial Gorge is.
This is also true for the Georgian military road - the only land route
connecting Georgia and Armenia with Russia. The highway was destroyed
on several sites and the reconstruction will take at least two weeks,
the cabinet says.
The scale of the catastrophe becomes clear when one takes into
consideration the fact that President Giorgi Margelashvili and the
minister of the interior visited the region three times in the last
several days. The president tried to calm local residents, who have
been cut off from the rest of the country and examine the restoration
works, which continue despite unfavourable weather conditions.
The catastrophe hit the Darial Gorge at the wrong time. The number of
tourists arriving from Russia was on the increase. All of them took
the Georgian military road. In addition to that, Georgian agricultural
products were delivered to Russia via the Georgian military road as
well. After Russia banned EU and US food imports, Georgian producers
thought they would be able to increase apple, pear and persimmon
supplies to the country.
However the main problem is that the people now feel that a road of
vital importance is being undermined over and over again. Scientists
believe it may been caused by the damaged environment of the Main
Caucasus Ridge, the gradual melting of ice on Kazbek and natural
processes, which cannot be altered by humans.
http://vestnikkavkaza.net/articles/economy/59154.html