Tbilisi Blames Tskhinvali for Water Shortage

The water shortage problem in Tskhinvali is the fault of South Ossetian secessionist authorities, Merab Antadze, the Georgian State Minister for Conflict Resolution Issues, said on June 19.  

Speaking after talks with chief South Ossetian negotiator Boris Chochiev in Tskhinvali on June 19, Antadze said that the South Ossetian side was not supplying the pipeline with sufficient water from a sluice located in the South Ossetian stronghold of Java.

?Only a third of the required water is flowing into the pipeline from Java; that is the reason why Tskhinvali has a water shortage problem. So all those accusations voiced by Tskhinvali recently are false. They continue these lies because they have refused to carry out a joint inspection [of the pipeline] on both locations ? in Tskhinvali and Java,? Antadze said.

Java is located in the north of South Ossetia outside the conflict zone; hence, joint monitoring hasn’t happened.

The secessionist authorities, however, accused Tbilisi of failing to properly repair the water pipeline, which was damaged twenty four days ago in the Georgian-administered villages to the north of Tskhinvali. Tskhinvali, as a result, it said, continued to experience water shortages.

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