“There are 30 villages in Georgia which have had no electricity for 20 years.”
During the economic debates held on 13 November 2013 in the Parliament of Georgia,Minister of Finance Nodar Khaduri discussed the existing energy problems in the villages of Georgia. Delivering a speech, he stated: “There are 30 villages in Georgia which have had no electricity for 20 years.”According to Khaduri, the Ministry of Energy has been actively working on this issue and the electrification activities have been launched in Adigeni, Tianeti, Dusheti, etc. In addition, the energy problems have already been solved in seven villages.
FactCheckinquired about the access to electricity in the villages of Georgia and checked the accuracy of Nodar Khaduri’s statement.
Trying to ascertain the number of villages which have been deprived of the access to electricity in the past 20 years, we addressed the Ministry of Energy with an official letter. The response received from the Ministry states that 35 villages have had no access to electricity throughout the past 20 years due to a lack of proper networks. Of those 35, four villages have been electrified in the period since 1 October 2012. By the end of the year, electricity will have been brought to another seven villages of Georgia.
As further clarified in the response, with the funding provided by USAID, in 2011 the Ministry of Energy started its efforts for solving the said problem. In 2013, based upon the decision of the Government, the Ministry of Finance allocated additional sums from the fund designated for regional projects (envisaged in the Law on the 2013 State Budget) to the Ministry of Energy for the activities related to electrification; specifically, the designing of power transmission lines and relevant infrastructure as well as for the financing of other expenditures linked with the construction.
In our letter we requested statistical data on previous years as well but the response of the Ministry solely reports that the work on solving the problem of electricity in Georgian villages took its start in 2011. It does not specify, however, how many villages were provided with electricity in the period between 2011 and 1 October 2012.
As of today, the number of villages in Georgia which have been deprived of electricity for the past 20 years totals 35 with the number of households of these villages amounting to 683. According to the regions, the current situation is as follows:
In the Mtskheta-Mtianeti Region, the number of villages left without electricity equals six while the number of households amounts to 120. The dates of the initiation and the completion of the activities for the provision of electricity to this region’s villages are shown in the table below.
In the Kartli Region, the number of villages that have had no electricity supply for the past 20 years equals 18 while the number of families amounts to 331. The dates of the initiation and the completion of the activities for the provision of electricity in the region are depicted in the table below.
In the Adigeni District of the Samtskhe-Javakheti Region, 17 families are deprived of electricity in the village of Utkisubani. The electrification of the village kicked off on 1 October 2013 and the work is at the stage of completion at present.
In the Ratcha-Lechkhumi Region, 26 families have been experiencing problems with electricity for the past 20 years in the village of Bavari. The electrification work is projected to start on 1 July 2014 and be completed by 6 October 2014.
In the Imereti Region, the access to electricity is restricted to 17 households living in three villages. Dates for the start and the completion of the electrification activities are shown in the table below.
In the Ajara Region, throughout the past 20 years electricity has not been provided to 290 households in six villages. As for the activities aimed at the solution of this problem, the dates of their initiation or completion are yet to be specified.
Conclusion
As noted above, throughout the last 20 years the problems related to electricity supply have persisted in 35 villages of Georgia. As reported by the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry started working on the ways of solving these problems in 2011 with funding from USAID. Even though we requested statistical data on the work performed on the said issue in previous years as well, the Ministry of Energy failed to provide information on the villages where the problem of electricity was solved in the period between 2011 and 1 October 2012.
We were informed by the Ministry of Energy that since 1 October 2012 electricity had been provided to four villages formerly deprived of power and not seven, as claimed by Nodar Khaduri in his statement. By the end of the year, electricity will have been brought to an additional seven villages. In 22 villages the activities of electrification have been launched and are projected to be completed by 2014-2015. As for the six villages of Ajara, the dates of the initiation and the completion of electrification work are yet to be specified.
Accordingly, FactCheck concludes that Nodar Khaduri’s statement: “There are 30 villages in Georgia which have had no electricity for 20 years,” is MOSTLY TRUE.
