Villagers in Dagestan call complaints against quarry owners ineffective

For many years, residents of several villages in the Kizilyurt District have been suffering from dust from nearby crushed stone quarries, and the authorities of Dagestan do not respond to their complaints.

There are about 30 quarries in the Kizilyurt District, mainly for the extraction of crushed stone. Most of the quarries are located near the villages of Komsomolskoye, Sultan-Yangiyurt, and Khanar. For many years, local residents have been complaining to various authorities about the operation of the quarries, but to no avail, says Rustam Shapiev, an activist from the village of Komsomolskoye.

“According to the conclusion of the ‘Rospotrebnadzor’ (Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare), the level of industrial dust is exceeded here by 157 times, and the noise level by 75 times. In the summer, we cannot open the windows, as a layer of dust immediately appears,” the activist noted.

The quarries “literally poison the lives of residents of the village of Komsomolskoye,” the Dagestani branch of the All-Russian Popular Front (known as ONF) reported on its page in “VKontakte”.

According to Patimat, a resident of the village of Sultan-Yangiyurt, her children regularly get sick due to dust and dirt from the nearby quarries.

Complaints to the authorities with a request to take action remain without consideration, says Magomed, a resident of the village.

According to the audit conducted, the violations of sanitary and epidemiological legislation found in 2018 by the “Rospotrebnadzor” have not been eliminated.