Residents of a village in Dagestan criticized the authorities' inaction in the absence of water.

During a prolonged water outage in a large village in the Khasavyurt district, authorities failed to organize water delivery, forcing residents to buy water, villagers claimed. Water delivery was organized, but the village head countered that there were too many residents.

As reported by Kavkazsky Uzel, on November 9, residents of the village of Aksai in the Khasavyurt district of Dagestan complained about a 20-day water shortage. The Khasavyurt district administration reported that the water supply was cut off "due to the acceptance procedure for completed work."

Water supply to the village has been fully restored, Aksai village administration head Arslan Ismailov told a “Caucasian Knot” correspondent on November 19. "The problem was that the old pump broke. It took some time before a new one was delivered and installed. Now the village is fully supplied with water, no problems," Ismailov explained.

Village resident Ruslan said his house had no water for about 12 days. He had to order a water truck, which delivered about 5 tons of water for 1,200 rubles. This water was then transferred to a special container.

"We have a large family, and we use a lot of water. During the water outage, we had to order water trucks twice, which puts an additional strain on the family budget. We, of course, complained about the lack of water to the village and district administration, but they said the pump was broken and we had to wait for a new one," Ruslan told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

A resident of the village of Madina reported that she had been without water for about two weeks. Water had to be purchased by water truck, which was then transferred to special wells.

"The cost of a water truck was between 800 and 1,000 rubles, depending on the volume. We ordered water three times. No one informed us about the water delivery; at least, our family didn't know about it. We didn't complain because we were told there were some repairs going on and we'd have to wait," the woman told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Village head Ismailov claims that the administration organized water delivery to the villagers. "Aksay is the largest village in the Khasavyurt district, with a population of about 15,000. Naturally, they couldn't deliver water to all parts of the village in one day, which is why there were complaints," he explained.

According to the federal law "On Water Supply and Sanitation," water supply interruptions to homes are permitted only in emergency situations. However, outages must not exceed 24 consecutive hours, and local authorities are obligated to ensure the delivery of drinking water, noted lawyer Ali Aliyev.

He added that, according to the rules for the provision of public services, in such situations, one can request a recalculation of the water bill. One can file a lawsuit for compensation for damages—for example, the cost of purchased water, as well as moral damages, which are recoverable under the Law "On the Protection of Consumer Rights," Aliyev explained to a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to the lawyer, there is no need to submit requests for a recalculation yourself, as the company is responsible for doing so. If this does not happen, one should contact the State Housing Inspectorate or the prosecutor's office.