National Environmental Agency Says Shovi Tragedy “Caused by Convergence of Many Factors”

The National Environmental Agency issued a statement today related to the Shovi landslide. It said the Bubistskali River was not characterized by flood events in the past and that there were no large-scale landslides in the Shovi area. However, during the disaster, the Agency says “five different processes converged” to produce catastrophic results.

In particular, the Agency says, in the Bubastskali River valley (the right tributary of the Chanchakhi River), the intense melting of the Buba and Tbilisa glaciers and the subsequent precipitation set the solid sediments in the valley in motion, while also developing active lateral erosion processes; the river banks were scourged. This facilitated the formation and activation of the so-called coastal landslide processes, which later turned into mudslides.

The Agency said that the geological bulletin it issued in 2022 is about the river Dzghivora, which is a left tributary of the Chanchakhi River, where the mudslide torrents often pass, not the river Bubatskali that caused the mudslide.

The Agency notes that as a result of the information processed by the geologists of the National Environment Agency, it is known that the flood developed on Bubistskali (the right tributary of Chanchakha) had not caused large-scale geological processes in the past and that such disasters were never observed in Shovi. as opposed to the left tributary river of Dzghviora (tributary of riv. Chanchakhi), where the activity of flood processes is frequent.

The Agency also seemed to nuance the conclusions of the 2021 annual geological bulletin, which gained some publicity yesterday for warning it contained that “the mudslide poses a danger to the central highway and the infrastructure of the Shovi resort” and identified the threat as “high”.

The Agency’s statement today also contradicts the reports and testimonies of the locals of Shovi, who in recent years have repeatedly appealed to the local and central government to strengthen the banks of the Bubistskali river and to pay attention to the environmental situation in the valley, as they have frequently had to deal with the consequences of small-scale landslides and mudslides.

A day later, on August 6 the National Environmental Agency published a report, describing in more detail the events leading to the Shovi landslide and containing the same conclusions.

(Notably, the 2022 geological bulleting is not published on the website of the Agency and is not available to the general public. According to the environmental CSO Green Initiative, the Agency did not release the 2022 report based on the access to public information law, and the CSO is now seeking the enforcement of the right to obtain the report through court.)

Note: this news was updated on August 8 at 1:28 pm to include the report on Shovi landslide published by the National Environmental Agency.

Also Read:

• 05/08/2023 – Landslide in Racha: Live Blog
• 04/08/2023 – Fact Checker: Where are Georgia’s Rescue Helicopters?
• 04/08/2023  – International Community Sends Its Condolences to Shovi Landslide Victims
• 04/08/2023  – President Addresses the Nation on the Shovi Landslide Tragedy
• 03/08/2023 – Deadly Landslide in Racha Kills at Least Two

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