Japan gifts two forest firefighting vehicles to Georgia’s Interior Ministry
About 752 hectares of forests were burnt in the Borjomi Gorge in total. Photo: Embassy of Japan in Georgia
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The Japanese Embassy to Georgia and international organization Mercy Corps have gifted two forest firefighting vehicles to the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Fires destroy not only the treasures of nature, but also local income and tourism...I hope this gift from the Japanese people and government will help Georgia's Emergency Service to extinguish fires in inaccessible areas before fires spread over a large area of forest and enable them to avoid causing irreparable damage”, said Tadaharu Uehara, the Ambassador of Japan to Georgia.
Forest fires have been a serious problem for Georgia over the past several years.
A massive forest fire broke out in Georgia’s Borjomi Gorge in August of 2017. Several thousand people were engaged in the firefighting operation including thousands of soldiers and Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani firefighters, rescuers and rangers.
Nine Georgian, Azerbaijani, Turkish and Belarus helicopters battled the blaze.
About 3.5 hectares territory were affected by fire in the Borjomi Gorge in May of 2019.
About 752 hectares of forests were burnt in the Borjomi Gorge in total. Of these, 525 hectares was the same area that was burnt during the 2008 Russia-Georgia war.