About the project
Located on the eastern Black Sea coast in Georgia, the port of Poti is the largest in the country and it handles 85% of the national container traffic. Millions of tons of bulk cargo – including copper concentrate, clinker, sulfur, and coal – are processed out in the open, despite the risk that these substances can pose to the environment and to public health. Near the port, trucks move back and forth all day long, contributing to the noise and air pollution. Communities living close to the port have already been displaced due to armed conflicts in 1990s and found refuge in Poti. Now their lives have once again become unbearable. They live right in front of the Transford LLC terminal. In 2019 and 2020, the companies operating the terminal received a 50 million USD loan from the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to expand the operations in the port.
About the community-led struggle
“When I was a child, Poti was famous for its eucalyptus groves and its coastline. But today there are no more eucalyptus groves, no more windbreaks, and access to the sea is blocked by bulk and container cargo terminals. The local community is surrounded by an increasing number of polluting industries and terminals, and the air is so polluted that life has become unbearable for them.” (local activist)
For years local residents have been raising concerns about pollution in the area and the serious impacts on their health, particularly for children and the elderly. In 2020, they created the local association “Poti Citizens for their rights” to demand an independent assessment of the air quality and relocation to a safer, cleaner area.
As a result of their activism, in July 2020 the National Environmental Agency (NEA) installed a mobile air quality monitoring station in Javakhishvili street. The first results were very worrying: the level of dust particles (PM 10 and PM 2.5) were exceptionally high. But after 5 months, NEA decided to shut the air station down and left it turned off for 22 months, claiming they were unable to provide the necessary maintenance. According to local residents, the results were so damning that they decided to close it, fearing people’s reaction.
With the support of a local non-governmental organization, the residents also tested the hair and blood of twenty local children, finding that excess lead was present in half of the samples. In 2021, thanks to their campaigning, the municipality agreed to conduct a larger study with 104 children and found excess amounts of lead in 37 of them. However, according to an article published by the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung foundation, the sample was not representative: half of the children did not come from Javakhishvili street, but from a relatively cleaner area.
The CRE has supported the local organization Human Rights and Social Justice Center, one of the convenors of the “ Poti Citizens for Their Rights” platform, to foster local dialogues (including meetings between the local community and the authorities) and international advocacy. Thanks to the CRE support, the Human Rights and Social Justice Center also produced a video (see below) that describes the plight of affected communities. The CRE also linked Poti Citizens for Their Rights with our allies Accountability Counsel and Green Alternative, who supported them to join a DFC public hearing and raise their concerns with the DFC Board of Directors.
As a result of these efforts, the social and environmental concerns of Poti citizens were amplified at the national and international level, bringing much-needed attention to their struggle. Additionally, as a result of their advocacy with DFC, the company committed to improve the situation and better comply with the environmental regulations.
Further Resources
- “Georgia: how a community living near a port is struggling for their right to breath clean air” (Blog, December 2023)