Summary of 2018-2022 and “Gavigudet” Achievements

“Gavigudet” is a civil movement, formed in 2018, and it is already the 5th year, the movement fights for clean air through an advocacy campaign.

The movement aims to reduce environmental problems in Rustavi, and the main focus is the improvement of ambient air quality.

In this informational material, we want to tell you shortly about our movement activity, challenges, and achievements, we attained through these years.

The most problematic pollutants for Rustavi are the smallest solid particles – particulate matter (PM), mainly caused by enterprises, operating in Rustavi. 97% of the emissions in Rustavi come from the largest productions. For example, in 2020, during 281 days, out of 365, Rustavi citizens were breathing bad or very bad quality air. The reason for this was an inappropriate production process and the factories, that were operating without a dust collector system.

Exposure to particulate matter might cause asthma, bronchitis, lung damage, or cancer. Its long-term effects is correlated with cardiovascular diseases. Moreover, PMs affect cognitive skills, mental and reproductive health.

From the day it started, the movement had to overcome a number of challenges, like the necessity to explain to society that “Gavigudet” doesn’t request closing the enterprises. It protects the rights of those, who work in the productions, and demands proper rearmament of productions with filters and dust collector systems to protect a human right, guaranteed by the Constitution of Georgia, to live in a safe environment for health.

We held protest actions to direct the attention of decision-makers to the problem of our city. Especially, we want to point out the strikes, held in November 2019. For example, the action performance of November 15, held in front of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia. It was the starting point from where the progress began, decision-makers met us and started the negotiations; On the action, held on June 5, 2022, our main demand was the proper enforcement of the law, which was enacted from June 1, 2021. According to this amendment, productions were assigned the obligation to determine emissions by a continuous instrumental self-monitoring method. After the June 5 action, the ministry first made the plan-schedule public (which was one of the demands of the action), in which the deadlines for the installation of filters and the self-monitoring system in the enterprises by the regulatory objects were given.

The movement has been working voluntarily for almost 3 years and in the last period, with the help of donors, we were able to strengthen our movement, keep on informing the public through different activities and do helpful things for our city.

As a result of our activities, we planted yards of 4 schools and the college “Modus” in Rustavi. Our aim is to encourage sustainable urban solutions through these activities. We take care of planted trees till today, and sometimes, with our own resources, we mow, replace and keep the sustainability of our project.

Moreover, to grow society’s awareness, we organized tours in the industrial area, introducing another side of the city to the people and making them see the reality. After the tours like that, citizens were able to see the problem better, thus their involvement used to grow. Furthermore, at the beginning of the movement, the level of public awareness about air pollution was quite low, because of that, we organized free action of riding from Rustavi to Tbilisi, and the cost of the riding was listening to the reality of Rustavi about air pollution. After that activity, the number of people aware of the city’s problem got higher.

One of the “Gavigudet” achievements was that ambassador of the United States heard our problem and met us on her own initiative and once again listened to the challenges, facing our city. During the meeting, Mrs. Kelly Degnan emphasized the importance of the involvement of the population in the processes and the cooperation of different sectors, and she confirmed her support once again.

Around the problem, to unite society, especially the youth, we conducted several training/ lectures, discussing the importance of environmental problems, advocacy, and citizen involvement. We still receive support from these people and our goal is to make more young people active.

We want to note the fact, that “Gavigudet” became a member of the working group on the 2020-2022 Action Plan for the Improvement of Air Quality in Rustavi. We are still involved in the monitoring of its implementation. Besides, in 2022, we became a member of the working group for improving the quality of ambient air in the central zone, and we hope that, with our involvement, we will be able to adapt the plan to the needs of Rustavi as much as possible.

We must note the fact that several enterprises, distinguished by functioning in violation of the law, installed dust collector systems this year and improved their production process. We hope, that other enterprises will also function in accordance with the requirements of the law, soon.

In conclusion, we can say that the main achievement of “Gavigudet” activism is that most parts of society learned about the problem of the city and some of them got involved. On top of that, the problem of air pollution is now on the agenda of the government.

This was a short summary of our several years of activity. You can see information about each activity in details on this link.

“Gavigudet” would like to thank all supporters. You make this fight stronger.

The informational material was prepared by “Eco Centre” with the support of Open Society Georgia Foundation within the framework of the project “Advocating for Clean Air in Rustavi”.

The views, opinions and statements expressed by authors and those providing comments are theirs only and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Foundation. Therefore, the Open Society Georgia Foundation is not responsible for the content of the information material.