According to the latest information, all previous research work on the creation of the artificial island in Batumi has been completed and the construction permit has been issued. The project includes the construction of two peninsulas and one island, which is being carried out by the company "Ambassador Batumi Island".
In unison with the construction, environmentalists do not stop criticizing thу idea.
Given water pollution, impact on climate change, unclear transport policy and other problems, ecologist Nino Chkhobadze opposes the construction of an artificial island in Batumi in its current form .
According to her, comments on the project have been sent to the relevant persons a long time ago, but some of them have not been taken into account by "Ambassador Batumi Island ".
"We have sent comments on the project, some of them were taken into account, some were not." Everything can be washed away by the first wave. Сlimate change that will cause a rise in water level was not provided by the project. We demand that a strategic environmental impact assessment be carried out, the project be included in the Batumi development plan as well as an answer be given to the question of what Batumi's transport policy will be after the project is completed. 14 thousand people are planned to be accommodated on the Batumi Peninsula and it’s not that simple; everything must be calculated in advance. There is a high probability that there will be no treatment facilities and the water flowing through the tributaries to Batumi will be polluted,” the chairman of the NGO “Greens of Georgia - Friends of the Earth” points out.
In Chobadze’s words, the project of the access road to the artificial island also raises questions.
"Nobody will be able to pass there at all, even though they despite the a bypass road construction, we do not know what the traffic flows will be like. If
they build a prison there, then they should say that people cannot leave and cannot enter. We do not see this transport policy, we need to evaluate its synergy and the cumulative effect that this island will cause on the entire Batumi coast," Nino Chkhobadze stresses.
