LocationsBacked by UNDP, the Green Climate Fund, and the Governments of Georgia, Sweden, and Switzerland, climate-smart defences are reducing risk across 11 river basins, helping communities plan, learn, and thrive.
No Longer Afraid of Rain: How Flood Protection Is Changing Lives Along Georgia’s Rivers
November 4, 2025
Kintrishi River, Kobuleti
Photo: UNDP/Tamuna Amirgulashvili
In Gagma Kodori, Samegrelo, retired agroengineering teacher, Elguja Aburjania, points to a bend in the Rioni River. He used to play football on that patch of land. “The river took it, metre by metre, until the pitch was gone. It took farmland, too, maize, soy, and wheat, and several neighbours left, cut off when floodwater regularly washed over the only road in and out,” shares Elguja.
Elguja Aburjania, Gagma Kodori Village
Photo: UNDP/Tamuna Amirgulashvili
Today, 618 metres of riprap berm shield the riverbank and strengthen the nearby flood-defence berm. These flat stone structures strengthen riverbanks and foundations, cut soil erosion, and absorb the force of the current. The roads are open. People stay.
Since 2019, Gaghma Kodori has stood alongside 14 other high-risk locations on Georgia’s great rivers, Alazani and Rioni among them, with Achkva, Khodashniskhevi, Lagodekhiskhevi, Liakhvi, Telaviskhevi, Tskhenistskali, and Tsivi, where flood-protection infrastructure is reshaping daily life.
This work is part of UNDP’s seven-year programme to help the country live safely with a changing climate, supported by US$74 million from the Green Climate Fund and the governments of Georgia, Sweden, and Switzerland. The approach is practical and modern: stronger monitoring, earlier alerts, and defences built exactly where water once broke through.
“Global estimates are that every dollar invested in climate adaptation brings more than ten dollars in benefits over the next decade,” says Douglas Webb, UNDP Resident Representative in Georgia.
“We can’t change the weather, but we can change how we respond. By rethinking how the country approaches climate resilience and adaptation, we can build a future where climate shocks no longer destroy lives and livelihoods, and where communities are informed, ready, and resilient.”
When the River Stays in Its Banks
Georgia’s waters are unevenly distributed, richer in the west, while eastern regions often face scarcity. The country is threaded by 26,060 rivers (about 60,000 km in total), 99.4% of them shorter than 25 km. The Likhi Range splits two great basins: around 70% (18,109 rivers) drain to the Black Sea, and 30% (7,951) to the Caspian. In the east, most streams join the Mtkvari system on its way to the Caspian; in the west, rivers flow independently to the Black Sea. Georgia’s largest river overall is the Mtkvari (only ~400 km run inside Georgia), while the west’s most water-abundant, and the longest contained entirely within the country, is the Rioni. In the east, the Alazani anchors Kakheti, supplying irrigation, sustaining vineyards and farms, and tying rural livelihoods to the land.
UNDP’s work along these rivers is practical and precise: shore up what fails, build where water needs room, guide excess flow safely away from homes, schools and fields. Behind every metre of gabion, every reinforced culvert, every restored dam is a pattern of resilience.
Davit Jaoshvili, Vazisubani Village
Photo: UNDP/Tamuna Amirgulashvili
For Davit Jaoshvili, a Vazisubani local, the riverbank protection means a shield that safeguards the entire village from floods. For years, Rioni eroded the banks, carried off arable land, and frequent inundations put residents at risk.
“If these structures hadn’t been built, the river would have completely washed away the banks, and water would have poured into our homes. There has been heavy rainfall, and the river has swelled, but since these protection measures were installed, the village no longer faces the same danger.”
Davit means a 580-meter riprap berm and a 200-meter rehabilitated flood-protection dam to hold back, store, regulate, and control downstream flows.
Sopio Kacharava, Zemo Chaladidi Village
Photo: UNDP/Tamuna Amirgulashvili
“We are not afraid of rain anymore,” shares Sopio Kacharava, a resident of Zemo Chaladidi in Senaki Municipality. Looking back, she remembers the years when the Rioni swelled without warning. Each time heavy rain came, the river broke its banks and flooded her yard and fields, often twice a year, leaving her family with increasing losses.
The anti-erosion riprap berm along a 590-metre stretch and a 182-metre flood-protection dam now safeguard Sophio’s house and farmland. “Since the bank-protection works were completed, we feel much safer.” The river has risen several times in rainy seasons since, she adds, but her home and the village have been spared the floods that once seemed inevitable.
Irina Abuladze, Atskuri Village
Photo: UNDP/Tamuna Amirgulashvili
Sleeping Through the Rain
“The bank reinforcement is a relief,” says Irina Abuladze, a natural sciences teacher at the public school in the village of Atskuri, Akhmeta Municipality. She had to deal with the floodwaters of the Khodashniskhevi River, rushing into her house and damaging her harvest several times before.
Khodahnishniskhevi’s destructive force is now effectively countered by 2,458 metres of bank-protection gabions, stone-filled, galvanised-mesh baskets, flexible and durable for stabilising banks and protecting slopes and nearby infrastructure where water had repeatedly overflowed. The gabion also safeguards the Alaverdi Church, a monument of national cultural significance that is included on UNESCO’s Tentative List.
Davit Lachashvili, Telavi
Photo: UNDP/Tamuna Amirgulashvili
UNDP’s efforts to cut the risk of climate-driven disasters in Georgia go beyond the structural measures. It is done wherever the risk is highest and the community most vulnerable. Davit Lachashvili still hears elders talk about the 1977 late-night flood, when the Telaviskhevi tore through Telavi and the gorge swelled, inundating nearby villages. Since then, heavy rains have repeatedly sent water into homes and fields.
Kherkheulidze Dams on Telaviskhevi River
Photo: UNDP/Gela Bedianashvili
This year, Davit watched a different story unfold: the Telaviskhevi riverbed was cleared of stone, gravel, and up to three metres of silt that had choked the channel and amplified flood risk. Three debris-flow check dams, the so-called Kherkheulidze Dams, constructed in the late 1970s to safeguard Telavi, were cleaned as well. The channel runs free now.
“By cleaning the gorge, we’ve reduced the chances of a similar disaster to a minimum. Clearing the riverbed is crucial to help local people protect themselves from future floods,” he says.
Lagodekhiskhevi River, Lagodekhi
Photo: UNDP/Tamuna Amirgulashvili
Lagodekhi’s 2012 flood swamped much of the town: parks, homes, and vital roads. In response, UNDP’s climate programme laid 1.66 km of partially cemented rock barricade and cleared the riverbed of built-up silt and debris on the Lagodekhiskhevi River.
When heavy rains returned in September 2025 and the entire municipality was inundated, this reinforced bank was the only one that withstood the flow. Though parts of the rockwork were damaged, it prevented overtopping, and nearby streets and homes stayed out of the water.
Atskuri public school students
Photo: UNDP/Gela Bedianashvili
Learning Resilience
In the village of Atskuri, teacher Irina Abuladze is helping her students see climate resilience not as a distant concept, but as part of their everyday lives.
Her class takes part in environmental activities like the Climate Ambassadors green camps and Learn in a Safe Environment contests. They visit flood protection works in their village, learning how the new infrastructure shields their homes and families, lessons they’ll carry into the future.
As Georgia’s rivers rise more often and with greater force, these young learners are discovering that resilience can be taught, shared, and built.
UNDP’s climate initiatives focus on empowering people with knowledge, confidence, and practical skills. Communities now have better access to information about local hazards, while young people grow up understanding how climate change affects their valleys, bridges, and orchards, and what they can do to protect them.
Across Georgia, protective works are being paired with better data, early warning systems, and community training, helping people adapt to a changing climate, one village at a time.
Flood protection gabion on Khodashniskhevi River, Atskuri Village
Photo: UNDP/Tamuna Amirgulashvili
Set in Stone
Since 2019, UNDP’s climate programme has delivered flood-protection works at 15 high-risk sites across nine river basins: Achkva, Alazani, Khodashniskhevi, Lagodekhiskhevi, Liakhvi, Rioni, Telaviskhevi, Tskhenistskali, and Tsivi. In coordination with the Roads Department under Georgia’s Ministry of Infrastructure, these works translate engineering designs into durable, on-the-ground protection:
- 7 riprap berms constructed.
- 4 gabion structures installed and 15 gabion spurs rehabilitated.
- 5 culvert channels built.
- 3 stormwater diversion channels created.
- 7 dams rehabilitated and/or protected with complementary structural measures.
- 3 debris-catch structures cleared.
- 3 bridges replaced with new, more resilient crossings.
Meteorological station in Kutaisi
Photo: UNDP/Gela Bedianashvili
Stronger than Stone
Across Georgia, protective works are being paired with better data, early warning systems, and community training, helping the country adapt to a changing climate:
- Forecasting partnerships and capabilities: Georgia joined the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, ECMWF, in 2021 and partnered with the European Meteorological Network (EUMETNET) in 2025 to boost forecasting, climate services, and early warning.
- National observation network: 143 of 154 planned monitoring stations are installed (130 hydrometeorological; 13 agrometeorological).
- Upper air sounding capacity: The first radiosonde system in Poti is prepared for operation to enhance high-altitude measurements.
- Data processing and information systems: A high-performance computer has been in use since 2021; the central information system is being upgraded for automatic data delivery.
- Hazard assessment and mapping: The programme created a unified methodology for assessing and modelling natural hazards (floods, landslides, mudflows, snow avalanches, strong winds, hail, and droughts) and produced hazard and multi-hazard maps for 11 river basins with socio-economic vulnerability analysis.
- Forecasting and early-warning platforms: The forecasting platform Delft-FEWS operates across 11 river basins; drought and other hazard tools are in place; the Multi-Hazard Disaster Risk Information System is developed and deployed at the Emergency Management Service.
- Risk-informed planning: Multi-Hazard Risk Management Plans are prepared for four river basins (the remaining seven are scheduled for 2025–2026); Emergency Management Plans are developed for 11 municipalities (six adopted).
- Protective infrastructure and monitoring: Flood-protection works are underway at 15 locations; geological monitoring stations are installed at 11 landslide-prone sites.
- Agricultural climate services: The digital platform Georgia Climate Services for Agriculture, GECSA, operates in Kakheti and Shida Kartli, serving over 1,000 users.
- Community-based risk management: Community-Based Climate Risk Management planning is completed in 45 communities in Western Georgia, with further roll-out planned from autumn 2025.
- Institutional capacity and public awareness: A training programme reached national and municipal agencies; awareness and capacity-building in 46 municipalities reached up to 10,000 people.
- Youth and skills development: Green Camps engaged over 200 school students; 96 graduates received Green Scholarships.
Background
With US$74 million in funding from the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Sweden, Switzerland, and the Georgian Government, UNDP helps Georgia rethink its climate resilience to protect people and the economy from climate-driven disasters. This major seven-year-long effort draws on partnerships with the public, private, and civic sectors, local communities, and international development partners. More information is available here.
