Paper abstract:

Dighomi Meadows is on the front lines of a battle for Tbilisi's waters and lands-- those that remain untouched by development and the hands of companies ready to sacrifice the environment for short-term financial gain. Upstream from Tbilisi, the Mtkvari river still flows without the brown color that results from waste entering from the Georgian capital's residents and enterprises. But for how much longer? A determined group of residents-turned-activists launched a grassroots campaign to stop construction companies from simultaneously exploiting meadow resources and dumping waste into the river. Ongoing court battles offer a window into citizen rights at a time when Georgia's vaunted openness and transparency appears to be fading as Georgian Dream and Bidzina Ivanashvili appear to want to bend state institutions, including the judiciary, to their will. The battle has serious environmental consequences also: Dighomi Meadows has served as a floodplain to minimize, albeit not eliminate, the threat of flooding from the Mtkvari in downtown Tbilisi. This proposal has been inspired by the author's recent visit to the Meadows and discussions with activists, which will feature prominently in the paper, alongside visual evidence of the damage and the context of a Georgian political and judicial system in flux.