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GREEN POLITICS /
Statement
The Social Justice Center appeals to the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia with an administrative complaint
On September 22, “Enka” announced the termination of Namakhvani's contract. The goverment's position on Enka's statement is still unknown to the public. The consequences of the termination of the contract and the state's attitude towards the possible extension of the Namakhvani project are also unknown. Despite Enka's statement, the state-issued environmental and construction permits for the Namakhvani project are still in force. Revocation of illegally issued permits is extremely important today.
Based on the above, the Social Justice Center is appealing to the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia with an administrative complaint requesting the revocation of the Namakhvani HPP construction permit. The construction permit was unjustifiably issued by the LEPL Technical and Supervision Agency of the Ministry of Economy on April 22, 2020, with gross violations of legislative requirements. According to a complaint prepared by the Social Justice Center, the permitting agency grossly violated the requirements of the law and issued a construction permit without proper justification.
It is known to the public that the construction permit was issued as an exception, with simplified and specific conditions. In particular, at the time of issuing the permit, Enka had not submitted any mandatory construction documentation, proper studies, and expert opinions to the Agency. It can be argued that the state has permitted the construction of the Lower Namakhvani HPP which has an increased risk factor, including a dam more than 100 meters high, without a thorough examination of the local geological environment, study, and pre-identification of the expected threats. This put not only the local population but also the entire Rioni Valley in direct physical danger.
Legislative requirements and procedures were significantly violated in the process of issuing the exceptional permit. "Enka" did not submit any substantiation on the impossibility to timely submit construction documentation. Unfortunately, the Agency, totally unjustifiably, offered Enka to issue a construction permit on an exceptional basis, while the law obliges the permit seeker to apply to the Agency itself with a substantiated motion and request to apply the exceptional rule. By doing so, the Agency exceeded its authority and posed a significant threat to the safety of the facility by violating legislative standards of construction. The Agency did not fulfill its obligation at the time of issuing the construction permit by way of exceptional rule and did not substantiate the issuance of the permit for the facility of an increased risk factor without the construction documentation with respective legal arguments and factual circumstances.
It is noteworthy that the construction permit was issued under specific conditions, namely, the deadline for submitting full construction documentation was set for Enka in April 2021, and until then the possibility of carrying out major construction work was limited. However, the State soon provided Enka with several other additional benefits. In September 2020, in case of submission of construction documentation for individual facilities of HPP, their construction was permitted to begin, thus the standards of construction law were significantly violated, as such fragmentation of the construction process makes it extremely difficult to assess its overall impact and actual work. However, the additional benefits for Enka did not cease there. In March 2021, the deadline for submitting construction documentation to Enka was extended by an additional one year, until February 2022.
The exact and specific characteristics of Namakhvani HPP, the scale of its impact, and the expected risks are still unknown to the state. All of the above creates an even more dangerous trend in the context of extending the deadline for documentation submission.
In addition, the Technical and Construction Supervision Agency is the only administrative body authorized to inspect similar types of construction. Based on the requested public information, the agency inspected Namakhvani HPP four times in 2020 and 2021, although the inspection is completed without any written documentation. As it turned out, the Agency takes photos of the facilities under construction but does not respond to the issue of compliance / non-compliance with the permit conditions. Despite several pieces of evidence, the Agency says no violations have been identified during the inspection so far. The State’s vicious practice of oversight makes ongoing construction work on-site extremely dangerous.
Given all the above mentioned, the Social Justice Center appeals to the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia with an administrative complaint. We demand the revocation of the unjustified and illegal construction permit, and the immediate suspension of the construction process in the context of physical danger and absence of state supervision.
