Sochi: storm destroys shore reinforcement of Imereti Lowland

In Sochi, the storm has destroyed the shore-stabilization structures built in the Imereti Lowland. According to local residents, the reason is in design errors and poor work quality.

"The traditional spring storm of 6-7 points of power, which happened on March 23-24, just washed off the shore protection. Roads and workers' settlements are flooded. The remnants of destroyed dams are feverishly taken away by developers. Nobody is calculating the damage; they just want to hide it," Natalia Kalinovskaya, the chair of the territorial self-government "Psou", told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

She reminded that the participants of public hearings that took place in September 2008 with the aim to assess the environmental impact of the project of engineering protection of Imereti Lowland strongly opposed the project, fearing that it would destroy the beaches.

"We warned the State Company (SC) 'Olympstroy' that it was absolutely impossible to develop the valley of the Imeretinka River, not only because it is a monument of nature, but also because the entire building site comprised bogs located below sea level," said Ms Kalinovskaya.

"The storm has washed away the shore protection structures also because the developers wanted to save money. Instead of depositing pebbles towards the sea and creating a 50-meter-wide belt of artificial beaches, they just put concrete slabs over the existing natural pebble beaches without fixing them. Millions of roubles had been spent on shore stabilization; now, they've been just washed away by a small storm," Valery Suchkov, a member of the City Planning Council, has concluded.