HRW: Akhshtyr villagers in Sochi have no access to drinking water and public transport

The mountain village of Akhshtyr, Adler District of Sochi, has been deprived for five years of reliable water supply and is cut off from public transport and other infrastructure because of the Olympic construction, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) reports.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in violation of the law they have organized a dump construction wastes from Olympic facilities near the village of Akhshtyr. The plans to locate the dump there caused protests of Sochi ecological and public organizations, but the situation has not changed.

In 2008, the authorities asphalted the ground road that crossed the village to facilitate access of trucks to two quarries and the dump of construction wastes, which appeared during the construction of Olympic facilities, the HRW asserts. As a result, they broke the water supply to the dug wells, from where villagers took their drinking water.

Only in early December 2013, the Sochi Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov promised to address the problem, when he came to the village and met local residents.

A new highway cuts through the ground road, which had been used by locals to get to the main road connecting Sochi with Krasnaya Polyana. The authorities then built a crosswalk under the railway, but they failed to erect any safe pedestrian crossing across the highway.

Let us remind you that on August 7, the Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak assured that no hazardous construction wastes are disposed in Sochi.

"Backdoor" to Krasnaya Polyana

In the of Esto-Sadok that is neighbouring Akhshtyr, the Beryozovaya Street remains unsettled; it is a backup to Estonskaya Street and is actively used by construction machinery and private cars. However, the pavement on Beryozovaya, unlike Estonskaya, is simply absent, no sidewalks are assumed, and in many places roadsides are littered with debris.