OSCE Calls for Talks to Resolve S.Ossetia Water Crisis
The OSCE Mission to Georgia called on the Georgian and South Ossetian sides to meet and resolve the on-going water crisis in the region.
?I urge the parties to meet as soon as possible to find workable solutions for these questions,? the head of the OSCE Mission to Georgia, Ambassador Roy Reeve, said in a statement on June 18.
?This is all the more urgent now that the harvest season approaches,? he added.
A potable water pipeline in the conflict zone was damaged twenty four days ago, which left residents of the breakaway South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, without water.
The Tbilisi-loyal provisional administration of South Ossetia said on June 7 that it had repaired the pipeline, but Tskhinvali complained that the work had been of poor quality, resulting in ?very little water, which is dirty, getting to Tskhinvali.? South Ossetian workers were prevented from carrying out the repair work themselves.
In response, the secessionist authorities of South Ossetia cut irrigation water supplies to the Georgian villages of the region.
On June 16, Dimitri Sanakoev, head of the South Ossetian provisional administration, called on international organizations, in particular the OSCE, to take a more proactive stance and condemn Tskhinvali-based secessionist authorities for cutting irrigation water supplies to more than a dozen villages.
Meanwhile, Georgian media sources reported on June 19 that the Georgian village of Tamarasheni had come under fire from South Ossetian-controlled areas. No casualties were reported.
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