By Nino Bakradze

A move by the Saakashvili government to redo a lighting and sound system in an environmentally sensitive cave is leaving many in the dark. The move, which may be damaging the cave’s delicate ecosystem, also appears to have drained the state budget unnecessarily.

It may just come down to politics.

Prometheus Cave is a natural wonder located in Tskaltubo, 300 km west of Tbilisi, the capital of the Republic of Georgia. About 1,100 visitors tour the cave daily during the summer tourist season, riding boats on a 1,400-meter underground river through chambers filled with lights, music and spectacular rock formations.

Officially opened in 2011 by former president Mikheil Saakashvili, the project was funded by his political rival, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who replaced Saakashvili as the leader of the government in 2012 and held the office of prime minister for a year before stepping aside in November 2013 for a hand-picked replacement.

Prometheus Cave was discovered in 1983 by an Institute of Geography expedition team associated with Tbilisi State University. Its name comes from the Greek myth of Prometheus, the god-hero who gave fire to mankind before being chained to a Caucasus mountain by an angry Zeus.

The cave has eight different chambers and unique plant specimens that survive in the dark. When the Department of Tourism decided in 2007 that the cave should be opened to the public, it awarded the project to Association ATU, a non-profit organization of Ivanishvili’s, to implement with its own money and then turn over to the government. This type of philanthropic activity was common for Ivanishvili, who made a fortune in Russia before returning to his homeland to lavishly finance projects throughout Georgia.

Association ATU spent US$3 million and more than four years transforming the cave and surrounding area into a tourist attraction, according to a tourist attraction, according to a document filed with the Ministry of Economy. On January 25, 2012, at a time when Ivanishvili had begun his political campaign to unseat Saakashvili, the Ministry suddenly demanded --with no explanation -- that the cave be handed over immediately before the project was finished.

Two months later, in March, control of the cave was passed to the Ministry of Environment Protection’s Agency of Protected Areas. Although all the lighting, sound and other equipment was in place and functioning, the agency announced it would begin its own cave reconstruction project.