Namakhvani Hydropower Plant
Project type: Hydropower Plant
Description:
If constructed, the Namakhvani hydropower plant will be one of the largest in Georgia (424 MW). Its reservoir’s mirror surface will cover 610 hectares. It will flood parts of two municipalities in western Georgia, Tskaltubo and Tsageri municipalities, including the villages, cultural heritage, and unique biodiversity. It will also flood or change some of Georgia’s precious and expensive microzones for producing Tvishi wine.
Total cost: up to 800 mln USD
The project will be constructed by Enka renewables which is a consortium of Turkish and Norwegian companies: ENKA and Clean Energy Group, respectively.
The company behind Namakhvani HPP, Enka Renewables, has two shareholders: ENKA from Turkey, which has 90% of shares in the project, and is known for construction engineering, but with little experience in hydropower plant construction; and Clean Energy Group from Norway which has 10% of share in the project. Clean Energy entered the Georgian market in 2010 and has a history in this country, including a ‘failed dam’ whose tunnels collapsed soon after becoming operational ‐ Shuakhevi1.
Environmental and Social Impact
he project is planned to be constructed within the lower pool of Rioni river basin, surrounded by the Emerald Network sites, Ajameti Managed Reserve and Kolkheti National Park. It would threaten the only habitat of European Sea Sturgeon and the Rioni floodplains protected by Bern Convention. Placing a hydroelectric power station upstream could have a substantial impact on Emerald Sites located downstream due to the changes to the streamflow and sediment transportation, pollution or disturbing the migration routes of fish species.
According to the WWF “Construction and operation of additional HPPs cascades on the Rioni would further jeopardize the already shrunk sturgeon spawning grounds consequently having an impact on sturgeon conservation”, above to the fact that “the geo‐ecological balance in the region is seismically overly sensitive, increasing the risk of possible catastrophic developments.”
The Institute of Earth Sciences and the National Seismic Monitoring Centre of Georgia echoes the concern of WWF. In an official statement addressing the prime minister, the Institute announced that the project’s environmental assessment does not include proper studies and measurements. According to the institute the documentation shows the project will not be built to withstand strong earthquakes.
1 The controversial Shuakhevi hydropower plant’s construction where the main tunnels collapsed two months after it became operational. After three years of repairs, Shuakhevi resumed operation in 2020. However, even after the dam was repaired, a crack appeared in the recently repaired reservoir., and Llocals believe that subsequent water leakages in the surrounding villages were also caused by the project.
2 https://mepa.gov.ge/Ge/PublicInformation/8374
3 https://mepa.gov.ge/Ge/PublicInformation/19341
4 https://mepa.gov.ge/Ge/Files/ViewFile/28460
5 https://mepa.gov.ge/Ge/Files/ViewFile/28460
6 https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1o94Bb6oabiLP61DoSgKoGpFGTP7oBQuX
The project poses threats not only to the population of the Imereti and Lechkhumi regions, but also river ecosystems and agrobiodiversity, scientists say. Its development started without any justification of the economic need for the plant, and the preliminary construction works started without the completion of several studies required by law. According to the WWF ‘the project undoubtedly can cause an irreversible damage to the local genetic diversity, specifically to the unique agro‐biodiversity, as well as to the natural and cultural heritage of the region that is the home to some rarest, unique varieties of vine in the world. Ultimately, Racha’s tourism potential will be significantly”.
It should be noted that the environmental consent 2‐191 (issued in 2020) claims that there are no cultural heritage sites in the project impacted area. Meanwhile, the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment from 2015 counts at least 19 cultural heritage sites of national importance (church, towers and its remains), as well as 23 archeological sites (both before BC and middle ages), from which at least 13 will be flooded.
Public involvement and participation in decision making process
The local communities have organised several protests during 2018. People had problems with the hydro’s negative impacts and losses of local agricultural (mainly wine) production and tourism development potential that represents the major income for local people. There is also a problem regarding dam safety due to high seismicity of the area that concerns not only locals but the residents of Kutaisi, Georgia’s second largest city. In order to address these issues, the petition #SaveRioniRiver collected more than 10 000 signatures from Georgian citizens7 in 2020.
Despite all of the concerns of the local communities, the only public hearing on ESIA revision took place in 2019 in Tskaltubo from where people reported numerous violations about access restriction to the meeting as well as the possibility to speak and receive the answers from project promoters. Based on the gross violations of the national legislation and Aarhus Convention on Access to information, public participation and access to justice, CSOs requested Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia: “To abolish the public discussions which were held in gross violation of the requirements of applicable law,” and to align with the European Parliament’s resolution on the EU‐Georgia Association Agreement to “fully comply with EU standards and norms, especially when it comes to assessing the environmental impact of large hydropower plants” and ensure compliance of hydropower projects with the EU standards, securing the transparency of the Environmental Impact Assessment process and the engagement of all stakeholders in decision‐ making.
Human Rights violation in Rioni Valley
Since October 2020 people from Lechkhumi, Georgia, have been helding a permanent protest against the construction of the Namakhvani hydropower plan which is planned to be built on the Rioni river. On 28 February, a protest was held in the Georgian city of Kutaisi where thousands of citizens opposed the construction of the hydropower plant. On March 14 more than 22 000 people gathered again in Kutaisi for the same protest.
Despite numerous calls to ensure constructive dialogue with local communities, the peaceful protests have been raided or dispersed by police four times as of April 2021. After April 3rd crackdown, Georgian State deployed a large number of police and special forces, water cannon vehicle, created the block posts near the protest area that would not allow people to move around the valley freelly. The media also could not work normally within the valley. All those activities were an attempt to even more escalate the situation. Georgia’s Public Defender critisized The Ministry of Internal Affairs for the actions and called it on to refrain from artificially escalating the situation. On April 11th, police dismantled the tents of the Rioni Valley Guards, located on the land of one of the protesters in the village of Namokhvani, the Rioni valley.
In a strongly‐worded joint statement of April 12, thirteen Georgian CSOs expressed their solidarity with Gumati‐based protesters against the Namakhvani Hydropower Plant, “whose constitutionally‐guaranteed rights to assembly and manifestation are gravely violated by the state [authorities].