dams

With hydropower and mining projects encroaching on their lands and livelihoods, Svan communities in Georgia’s northwest consider convening in an ancestral assembly to discuss their course of action.

After hitting a snag, the Khudoni dam in Georgia’s mountains is back in the game threatening to expropriate private lands and to bump up electricity prices for Georgian consumers. The controversial changes in an amended contract have inflamed the passion of the Svans who have for years tried to protect their communities from flooding.

The mistrust and frustration of communities in the mountains of north-western Georgia is deepening over make-shift consultations on large dam constructions.

As activists pointed out at a consultation meeting in Tbilisi, Georgia's hydropower sector has plenty of lessons to be learned by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The growing antagonism between promoters of the Khudoni hydropower plant project in Georgia and their local opponents from Kaishi is unlikely to ease when the investor and the Georgian Ministry of Energy boycott mediation by Georgia’s Ombudsman.

Protests against the Khudoni mega-dam in Georgia are spreading beyond the local communities affected by the dam. [*]

A fact-finding mission to Macedonia has confirmed our concerns that two planned hydro power plants are set to destroy important natural habitats in the Mavrovo National Park.