Presentation of the Research Report on the Activity of the State Sub-agency Department of Environmental Supervision

Today, on July 17^th, the presentation of the research report on the activities of the state sub-agency – the Department of Environmental Supervision was held.

The report was prepared with the support of the “Open Society Foundation Georgia” within the framework of the project “Advocating for Clean Air in Rustavi” and aimed to assess the effectiveness of environmental supervision on the example of controlling the performance of Rustavi industrial facilities.

The study describes the environmental supervision system in Georgia; air-protection legislation; the structure of the department; control services; measures implemented by the department for the prevention of environmental offenses; activities of inspectors. At the same time, it offers the best international practice of effective enforcement of environmental law.

Based on the given issues, including the information received from the Chief State Inspector, the study analyzes and highlights the challenges facing environmental supervision, among which are the insufficient number of inspections, the lack of inspectors, the effectiveness of responding to messages received on the department’s hotline. In addition, the study offers recommendations and ways to solve existing challenges and analyzes of the practice of responding to violations that are found as a result of inspections of industrial facilities.

The presentation was held through the Zoom platform. The meeting was attended by environmentalists, including an environmental expert; Representatives of non-governmental organizations, Rustavi City Council, teachers and interested citizens. The first part of the event was devoted to the presentation of the report led by researcher Mariam Khvedelidze, and the second part was the discussion and Q&A. The participants asked a number of interesting questions and expressed their opinions.

You can see the full report at the link.