A Georgian resort town confronts hazardous waste and post-Soviet decline
Text and photos by Rezo Getiashvili
Down but not out
The 1990s, however, brought wars, a petty dictatorship and subsequent revolution. Batumi was forgotten as a tourist destination, and much of the local population, now facing economic hardship, moved elsewhere. Areas that formerly bustled with the tourist trade gave way to bare walls and burnt palm trees; home and property values plummeted to a fraction of their former worth.
The city appears to be staging a comeback, however. In the last couple of years, Batumi has reclaimed its status as a major port, resort and, because of its proximity to the Turkish border, an important transit hub. Streets and beaches are regularly cleaned and cared for, and the old, true face of the city has re-emerged: Colchian cultural artefacts, eye-catching architecture, a main boulevard stretching for kilometres, delicious food and a wide range of entertainment possibilities, including a botanical garden and dolphin show. The natural appeal is also undeniable: an agreeable climate, enchanting landscapes, unique beaches, ancient forests, wetlands, flocks of migrating birds and subtropical fruits. And, of course, the tourists are once again part of the scenery.
Other small but significant improvements are that trees now have benches lying nearby, and that rubbish bins are now near those benches. But there’s actually something quite magical about these rubbish bins: Any solid item that gets put into one has a pretty good chance of finding its way back to you. Now, how does this happen?
First, the municipal sanitary cleaning service takes the bin contents to a dumpsite located between Batumi International Airport and the Tchorokhi River. What separates the dumpsite from the river is a concrete wall six metres in height. Moisture and water flow has long been eroding the wall’s foundation, and water that escapes the dumpsite pollutes the Tchorikhi, and the polluted river washes the deposited waste into the Black Sea before finally redistributing the waste along Batumi’s entire beach network.
