In Georgia, about 1600 water-suppliers provide a
total of 620 million m3 of drinking water per year. From
this quantity 90% is consumed by urban population and 10% by rural.
Main source of drinking water is groundwater, accounting for about 90%
of the total amount of water feeding the centralized water-supply
networks. No special treatment of groundwater takes place before it is
supplied to the users, the water is chlorinated only, with liquid
chlorine in most cases, or with calcium chloride. When surface water is
used as raw material, this water is specially treated –
precipitated, filtered and chlorinated.
About 65% of the total production of drinking water
is provided in a centralized way, supplying 95% of the urban and 35%
of the rural population. The average water consumption per capita in
urban areas is 335 litters/day, in rural areas 192 litters/day (data
from before 1993). Municipal centralized water-supplies are under the
responsibility of the Department of Municipal Service of the Ministry
of Urbanization and Building of Georgia. At the same time these
water-supplies are subordinate to the bodies of local government.
Rural centralized water-supplies are a part of the system of the
Industrial Union "Saksopltskalmomarageba" of the Ministry of
Agriculture of Georgia.
Currently there are serious problems in supplying
drinking water to the population. The population of almost all towns
feels a lack of drinking water, especially in summer. The following
problems are acute:
·
Existing water intake constructions
do not satisfy the demands of the rapidly growing urban population.
After 1987 not any of the water intake constructions of municipal
water supply systems has been reconstructed or expanded.
·
The largest part of water intake
structures and municipal water supply networks is in bad condition.
Lack of financial means inhibits reconstruction and even repair.
·
Enormous losses of water take place,
amounting to 25-30% (according to the unofficial information; the
exact amount of leakage cannot be determined because of absence of
water-meters).
·
Energy supply for pumping drinking
water is often deficient.
·
Bacterial pollution is reported in
some cases, due to contamination with sewage water.
·
Water chlorination is not possible in
some towns, because of lack of chlorine, which is not produced in
Georgia.
Detailed information on centralized municipal water
supply in the towns with a population of over 15 thousand people is
given in Table 7.
The most urgent problems are encountered in Tbilisi and in Kutaisi.
There are functioning about 800 country class,
local and non-engineering type water-supplies in Georgia’s rural
areas. The main centralized water-supply systems are organized in 18
regional departments subordinate to "Saksopltskalmomarageba", with a
total capacity of 390,000 m3/day, supplying 550,000 people
with drinking water (see Table 8). They have not received any
maitenance in the last 25 years. The remaining 650 water supplies of
non-engineering type in general are managed by public bodies, village
communities and agricultural organizations, which operate their
water-supplies without any special maintenance. Water disinfection
installations and groundwater protection zones are seldom functioning.
Thus, the quality of drinking w
