Mtkvari
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The document summarizes Georgia's water resources, focusing on the Mtkvari River. It notes that the Mtkvari is Georgia's largest river, flowing through several major cities before exiting into the Caspian Sea. However, the river faces severe pollution problems from untreated municipal and industrial waste. There are concerns that a proposed Turkish dam project could alter the river's flow and impact water levels in Georgia. Protecting transboundary rivers like the Mtkvari from pollution and other threats is important for the environment and economies of Georgia and Azerbaijan.
Mtkvari
- 2. GEORGIA Georgia is rich with water resources. There are 26 060 rivers in Georgia. There are a lot of thermal and mineral water springs in the country. There are many natural and mechanic water reservoirs. Important supplies of ground water are in limestone horizons on the territory of Caucasus. There are about 860 lakes in Georgia. Most of them are very small so their water surface area is about 170 km2. 43 reservoirs serve to hydroelectric stations and irrigation system. 35 ones among them are in East Georgia. Water reservoirs are very important in economics of Georgia. Nowadays in Georgia more than 75% of electric energy is generated in hydroelectric stations. The biggest river of Georgia is Mtkvari.
- 3. GEORGIAN - MTKVARI TURKISH – KURA AZERBAIJAN - KÜR
- 4. LOCATION Mtkvari river is the biggest river in South Caucasus region. Mtkvari river starting in northeastern Turkey, it flows through Turkey to Georgia, then to Azerbaijan, it receives the Aras river as a right tributary, and enters the Caspian Sea. The total length of the river is 1,515 kilometres. Kura river length in Georgia is 400 kilometres, in Azerbaijan is 906 kilimetres and in Turkey 209 kilometres.
- 5. HISTORY OF KURA People have lived on the Kura for at least 7,000 years. The first irrigation agriculture began about 4,500 years ago in the eastern Azerbaijan lowlands. Even though irrigation agriculture had been well established for thousands of years, until the 1920s, humans did not have a significant effect on the ecology or hydrology of the Kura River watershed. Since the logging and agriculture began to have a severe outcome on the water availability of the basin. Many forested areas in the mountains have been replaced by thin grassland because of logging. These habitat changes have been detrimental to the ecology of the Kura basin. After the 1920s, wetlands were drained and reservoirs were created to facilitate development of irrigation in the lower Kura valley.
- 7. CITIES WHERE KURA RIVER FLOWS In Georgia - Borjomi; Gori; Mtskheta; Tbilisi; Rustavi; In Azerbaijan – Mingechauri; Evlakhi; Sabirabad; Ali-Baramli; Saliani. Mtkvari river divides Tbilisi in two parts.
- 9. ECOLOGICAL PROBLEMS OF MTKVARI The first ecological problem of river Mtkvari in Georgia is the canalization - communal used waters with focal waste goes to the river without any filtrations. Biological cleaning of water is not available in any towns. Primary mechanic cleaning is implemented only on Tbilisi-Rustavi regional cleaning structure. As a result, there is important pollution on water objects. River Mtkvari is polluted by the municipal waste, population growth increases the pollution of the river. River Mtkvari is polluted by the factories, by the major industrial cities, like Tbilisi and Rustavi.
- 13. WHAT IS THE RESULT? Biodiversity loss – Almost 60 species of fish inhabit the Kura River and its tributaries. Among rivers of the Caucasus, the Kura has the largest number of endemic species. Poison of our neighbors – river Kura goes from Georgia to Azerbaijan, it means that the pollution will go to Azerbaijan. Canalization pollution will grow diseases such is : Botkin’s disease (viral hepatitis type A) and Dithyramb.
- 14. PROJECT “BESHIK HAYA” A hydroelectric project in Turkey’s northeastern Ardahan district will change the flow of the Mtkvari River, the biggest water artery in the South Caucasus. A planned dam in northeastern Turkey, the Beshik Haya cascade reservoirs, will divert most of the Mtkvari River from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea. If it changes the flow of the Mtkvari River, the dam will also cause water levels to fall in the portion of the river that runs through Georgia. The Ministry of Environment of Georgia, with the cooperation of NGO’s from Georgia and Azerbaijan had a deal with Turkish side and according to the information what they have informed to the media Turkish side won’t implement this project in near future.
- 15. EXPECTATIONS BY “BESHIK HAYA” Environmental Losses in Georgia and Azerbaijan; Economic damage for Georgia and Azerbaijan; Environmental catastrophes; Agricultural losses; Losses of South Caucasian cultural inheritances. Political conflicts in this region.
- 16. HELSINKI CONVENTION The Parties to the Convention undertake to take all appropriate measures to prevent, control and reduce any trans-boundary impact. This means they must: ensure that trans-boundary waters are managed in a rational, environment-friendly manner; ensure that trans-boundary waters are used in a reasonable and equitable way; ensure conservation and restoration of ecosystems. Georgia and Turkey aren’t members of Helsinki convention, Turkish side isn’t controlled about water.
- 17. WORLD EXPERIENCE Some industrial facilities generate ordinary domestic sewage that can be treated by municipal facilities. Industries that generate wastewater with high concentrations of conventional pollutants (e.g. oil and grease), toxic pollutants (e.g. heavy metals, volatile organic compounds) or other nonconventional pollutants such as ammonia, need specialized treatment systems. Some of these facilities can install a pre-treatment system to remove the toxic components, and then send the partially treated wastewater to the municipal system. Industries generating large volumes of wastewater typically operate their own complete on-site treatment systems.
- 18. Some industries have been successful at redesigning their manufacturing processes to reduce or eliminate pollutants, through a process called pollution prevention. Heated water generated by power plants or manufacturing plants may be controlled with: cooling ponds, man-made bodies of water designed for cooling by evaporation, convection, and radiation cooling towers, which transfer waste heat to the atmosphere through evaporation and/or heat transfer cogeneration, a process where waste heat is recycled for domestic and/or industrial heating purposes.
- 20. THANK YOU FOR ATTENTION! TSIALA ABESADZE THE GREENS MOVEMENT OF GEORGIA/ FOE-GEORGIA