On July 4, 2020, in the village of Anaga, in the Signagi municipality, residents held a protest to draw the attention of the authorities and demand a solution to the drinking water problem.

According to the protesters, around 200 families had to walk several kilometers daily to bring water home. They said they had expected the completion of the village’s water supply project the previous year, but the construction had stalled.

According to the outlet “Ai, Fakt,” 333,000 GEL had been spent on the water supply system in the village of Anaga over the last two years. The work was carried out by a company connected to an employee of the Signagi Municipality City Hall. The municipality officially accepted the completed work on December 26, 2019, yet half a year later, the residents of Anaga still had no water. The village school and kindergarten were also functioning without access to drinking water.

“It’s partly the fault of the City Hall, partly because of the situation in the country — we couldn’t get it under control. It’s also related to budget allocations… As soon as the work was completed at the end of 2019, winter came. We planned to finish afterward, but then the pandemic began. Infrastructure projects were halted,” said a representative of the City Hall.

On June 19, 2020, the deputy mayor, Malkhaz Begiashvili, told “Ai Fakt” that water would be released into the tanks the following week and that Anaga would have water within a few days. However, this did not happen.

At the July protest, Signagi’s deputy mayor, Madona Batiasvhili, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that the issue had been caused by technical damage to the main water facility. She promised Anaga residents that they would receive drinking water within the next few hours.

On July 1, 2021, according to information released by Signagi Municipality, the water reservoir in the village of Anaga was still under construction. The City Hall stated: “The uninterrupted water supply project in the Signagi municipality is progressing without interruption.”