From my hiking trip along the Rioni Valley in 2019. At that time, I didn't know that all this was set to disappear in a few short years. It's a bit past the weather for good hiking, but I'm contemplating a sea-to-source hike of the Rioni for 2021. Sadly, we may be the last generation to see the wild Rioni rage as it did in the time of Medea and the Argonauts, as it did when Prometheus was chained to Khvamli Mountain and stared down at it day and night. I would like to experience this mighty being before it is assassinated by corporate and political greed. If this idea goes ahead, you will surely hear about it here.
The Rioni currently has three dams built on it: at Gumati (just above Kutaisi), Kutaisi, and Vartsikhe (just below Kutaisi). None of these have impacted the course of the river to all that great of an extent; they don't include large reservoirs or very high walls. The Vartsikhe project diverts a major part of the flow of the Rioni into a long canal, dropping the water down a series of weirs until a point just south of Samtredia. This dam has been blamed for affecting fish populations in the Rioni, but the impact has apparently been of a manageable and mitigable size.
Some people say that dams are simply necessary for energy production and the ecology must simply take its lumps as it may. I certainly don't oppose hydropower in all forms. I believe that it's possible, even on such a mighty river as Rioni, to construct ecologically responsible hydropower plants. To me, it's very clear that the "Namakhvani" and Tvishi Dams, as well as four (!!) dams planned above Oni, are anything but ecologically responsible. Some couple of people are about to make a bucket of money off of the backs of Georgian ecological and cultural heritage, the indigenous inhabitants of the Rioni Valley, and the ecological well-being of future generations.
I think that the case for green tourism has not been adequately made and therefore green power gets a free ride. Blaming corporations in a country where most dams were built in Soviet times is a weak argument. Politically the government need to reduce hard currently energy imports. I like you cause, your methodology is weak.
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