On 23 October, 2014 ISET hosted sixth of the series of events concerning inclusive growth. The topic of the event was the energy and water supply sectors.
The main goal of the Inclusive Growth Dialogues, funded by the Swiss Cooperation Office for the South Caucasus, is to provide a neutral platform for a regular discussion of Georgian government policies, donor programs, and civil society-driven initiatives to promote inclusive growth.
All interested stakeholders are engaged in a series of roundtable meetings and lectures complemented by follow up site visits, additional research and analysis.
The purpose of these events is to share knowledge, learn from the experience of others, and come up with new ideas.
Georgia, just like other countries of South Caucasus region, is characterized with significant energy poverty. This is due to the low incomes in the country and the fact that people cannot afford using basic energy-intensive equipment, such as washing machines, refrigerators etc. To the contrary, to substitute their energy needs especially in rural areas, people try to cut firewood that is cheaper and burnt inefficiently, that is also the cause of number of environmental issues. Challenges of water supply sector for both residential and commercial use, as well as for irrigation are not much easier. Old infrastructure in the sector and the need of vast investments is some of the causes for frequent interruptions and supply schedules. It also appears that tariff system in water sector is more socially oriented so that residential sector is hardly paying for the water supply cost, while the business sector is heavily overpaying for its water supply. As mentioned by one of the panelists “being rich with water resources and having it supplied to the consumers is not the same thing”. The framing remarks on all this issues were made by ISET Policy institute (ISET-PI).
Moderated by Eric Livny, Director of ISET, the panel included business representatives Jean-Frederick Paulsen and Simon Appleby, Head of Investment Projects Department at the Ministry of Energy Liza Tavdumadze, Acting Director of the International Relations Department at the Georgian National Energy and Water Supply Regulatory Commission (GNERC) Mariam Ioseliani, Deputy Head of the Investment Projects Management Department at the United Water Supply Company of Georgia Ucha Dzimistarishvili, Eenergy Expert at AETS and Consultant at the United Melioration Systems Company of Georgia Nikoloz Abuashvili. Some of the central questions were how to share the experience of the electricity sector with the water supply sector to make it profitable and interesting for the investors. Finally, perspectives for future cooperation to grow the performance of both sectors were emphasized.
