The final report prepared by the Energy Community was published on November 19, announcing the completion of the unprecedentedly large-scale, important, and mediation process with a specific format between government officials and civil society around Namakhvani HPP. Although one of the important goals of the invitation of the Energy Community was the independent, qualified assessment of the environmental documents of the agreement between the State and the company Enka and the Namakhvani HPP project by independent international experts, this has unfortunately not been achieved. The published final report suspends the preparation of the independent assessments, the action plan of which was developed as a result of six months of joint work of Civil Society with the Ministry of Economy within the framework of mediation. The process will only continue if the project is updated.

Considering that according to the recent statement of the Minister of Economy, Enka has equal opportunities to leave the project and stay, we believe that this decision of the mediator to suspend the evaluation process along with the mediation process was made without proper consultation or discussion with civil society. Unfortunately, this report of the Energy Community leaves unanswered the main question regarding the safety of the Namakhvani HPP project, which has been a matter of public concern for more than a year and has become the foundation for one of the largest social movements in the history of modern Georgia. Leaving Namakhvani HPP without evaluation again poses risks speculation and arbitrary decisions by the government around the project.

The report submitted by the Energy Community does not substantiate why the process of preparing independent assessments is canceled when the initial assessments and assumptions made by our organization about the problems of the Namakhvani HPP project and the extent of the damage caused by it are already being justified. According to the disseminated information, Enka's request to terminate the contract implies high budget costs for our country's economy, which makes it impossible to properly evaluate the project legally or politically after the Energy Community leaves the process.

In addition, mediation organizations have made every effort over the past six months to provide mediators with an objective and verified information on non-compliance and fundamental violations of legal requirements. Nevertheless, this report on mediation, without proper evaluation, conveys a process that has been spoiled by several violations and disregard for human rights standards. This text of the report also does not describe any complaints or lawsuits filed by the organizations, whether it was about failures caused by the State oversight bodies or about cases of abuse of power and undue compliance by state agencies. Additionally, the report assesses the situation in the valley as restoring peace, where restrictions on freedom of movement have been unjustifiably maintained for months, and protests have continued to this day, and dissatisfaction has not been exhausted.

We recall that the Energy Community planned to independently evaluate the contract signed on the Namakhvani HPP project, which would once again explain the validity and legitimacy of this contract and enable us to prevent other similar agreements in the future, which in turn would create an opportunity to fundamentally re-evaluate the decisions made on energy projects in Georgia.

The Rioni Gorge guards refused to participate in the mediation process in September, at a time when another review was being considered by the Energy Community to prepare independent assessments of government decisions on environmental impact. At this stage, the state opposed the preparation of an independent assessment by the Dutch Environment Commission with an unsubstantiated argument, and the mobilization of the funds needed for the alternative assessment was delayed.

To this end, the NGOs plan to publish an alternative report on the mediation process, which will explain, on the one hand, the negotiation process ongoing for six months and, on the other hand, its final achieved or unattainable results.

Share