Georgia's Overlooked Disaster Victims
| Publisher | Institute for War and Peace Reporting |
| Publication Date | 13 May 2011 |
| Cite as | Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Georgia's Overlooked Disaster Victims, 13 May 2011, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/4dd2619114.html [accessed 5 June 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
More than 11,000 Georgian families are currently living in homes ruined or irreparably damaged by natural disasters, according to official data. The state has pledged to resettle them, but there's been little progress and they are forced to live in dangerous circumstances.
The Georgian government's environment agency says the country's mountainous regions are most at risk from natural disasters. A survey it conducted in 2006 identified 53,000 potential landslides threatening 1.5 million hectares, with 70 per cent of them near inhabited land. Some 3,000 towns and villages were directly threatened by the risk of landslide.
Between 1987 and 2010, more than 400 have people died in natural disasters. In 2008, all the members of two families in Ajara, a region on the shore of the Black Sea, were killed by landslides. Villagers were warned about the risk of a landslide, but were not resettled.
Official statistics indicate that the process of resettlement is going very slowly. Figures from the ministry for refugees and resettlement show only 429 houses were provided in 2007-9 for those displaced by natural disasters. The 2010-2011 budget does not set aside funds for such accommodation.
The photos were taken in the villages of Mleta and Sharakhevi in the Mtskheta-Mtianeti region, eastern Georgia.
(Also see: Georgia: Natural Disaster Victims Claim Neglect)
