Half of population in rural Georgia lacks drinking water

Lack of drinking water in rural Georgia

According to the National Statistical Service of Georgia, half of the population living in the regions of Georgia does not have drinking water.

The NSS found that 65% of the rural population produces drinking water on its own, mainly groundwater through wells and springs. According to experts, however, the level of groundwater has dropped significantly, and non-professional drilling for personal purposes increases the risk of groundwater pollution.

At the same time, more than 95% of Georgian villages do not have a centralized sewerage system.

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As Deputy Director of CENN Rezo Getiashvili told Business Formula, many villages “literally suffer from a lack of water, they have not been supplied with water for months. It is simply impossible to develop a village in such conditions.”

“There is a lot of infrastructure projects going on, but they often fail due to lack of natural resources,” Getiashvili says.

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According to current legislation, water supply is within the competence of the municipality, but in most municipalities water service is not operating, which means that the funds allocated by government to water supply to the regions are either not spent purposefully or exist on paper only.

Several years ago a special water code was to be introduced in Georgia according to which the water supply system should reach all the towns and cities of Georgia. Achieving this by 2024 is also a point in the UN’s Development Strategy.