Water Resources of Georgia

Georgia’s landscape is characterized by the big mountain ranges of Greater and Lesser Caucasus, in between which lowlands with Mediterranean climate are situated.

Georgia is rich in water resources. 140 rivers of at least 25 km of length occur (see                   Table 1).  Surface water and groundwater resources include numerous thermal and mineral springs. Many snow- and glacier-fed rivers drain the mountains and substantial limestone aquifers are present in the Greater Caucasus. Georgia’s water resources are, however, unevenly distributed: West Georgia receives very high amounts of precipitation (up to 4000 mm/year), whereas East Georgia is much drier (at some places less than 200 mm). A natural division between these two regions coincides with the drainage basins of Black Sea (Rioni, Inguri, Chorokhi rivers) and Caspian Sea (Mtkvari, Alazani rivers) respectively.

  1   Frequency distribution of rivers in Georgia

                                                                                                              *  Mtkvari river on Georgian territory

Except for the Chorokhi, which only runs it’s last 20 km through Georgia, the largest river of the country is the Mtkvari (Kura), which comes from Turkey, passes the towns of Tbilisi and Rustavi and enters Azerbaijan. It drains about 23% of the country towards the Caspian Sea. Second largest river is the Rioni, draining into the Black Sea, covering about 20% of Georgia.

Many natural and artificial lakes are present. 43 reservoirs are operated in Georgia, of which 35 in East Georgia, for irrigation or hydropower generation (see Table 2).

2   Characteristics of the main lakes in Georgia

Groundwater resources are abundant, especially in the lower slopes (karst limestone) of the Greater Caucasus and in the lava plateaus of Akhalkalaki and Marneuli, together accounting for an estimated safe (sustainable) yield of about 340 m³/s.