Protesters in four villages of Daghestan’s Derbent District blocked a local road on 25 July demanding that the authorities move a landfill from near their villages. The local authorities have promised to address the problem.

Protesters used rubbish lorries to the road leading to the landfill in the morning.

‘The city has already collapsed. The rubbish hasn’t been removed from containers for the fourth day already’, reads a statement published in the group, Moy Derbent Plyus, in the social network VKontakte.

In the course of the day, pictures taken in different parts of Derbent were published in the group, showing piles of waste.

There is no waste processing plant in Derbent District, therefore all municipal waste is taken out of town. However, residents of nearby villages, complain that the local authorities simply burn the rubbish, causing bad smells to spread over the whole area.

By noon, local officials arrived at the protest site, and agreed that rubbish should not be burnt, promising to solve the problem.

Towards 15:00, police arrived and began to disperse the protesters by force, leading to a skirmish. Several men were detained.

All detainees were later released. Some activists continued to discuss the issue with local authorities in the District Administration building. The mayor of Derbent, Malik Bagliyev, the head of the Derbent District, Magomed Dzhelilov, and the head of the local Department of Housing and Communal Services, Salikh Ramazanov met with the villagers.

‘After conversations with local inhabitants, the heads of the municipalities [in question] decided to create an initiative group to solve this problem’, a statement on the official website of the Derbent District read.

‘You should never burn rubbish! This problem will be solved! The landfill should be urgently moved to an appropriate place and civil control over the landfill should be established’, the website quotes Magomed Dzhelilov.

According to Russia’s minister of natural resources, Sergey Donskoy, 27 regions of Russia were included in a list with acute sanitary and hygienic problems. The list includes Ingushetia and Daghestan.

An inspection conducted by the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) revealed that illegal dumps were located in six districts of Daghestan: Derbent, Khasavyurt, Babayurt, Karabudakhkent, Kizilyurt, and Magaramkent.

[Read on OC Media: Illegal landfills found in six districts of Daghestan]