18:58, 12 April 2026

A second person has been arrested in connection with the Gedzhukh Dam breach.

In Dagestan, the former director of the company that maintained the Gedzhukh Dam, whose collapse led to the flooding of villages in the Derbent District and the deaths of people, has been detained.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," an engineer for a commercial organization has been detained in Dagestan. He was responsible for ensuring the safe operation of the Gedzhukh Reservoir dam. The Gedzhukh Reservoir was poorly maintained, and the operating organization failed to take action when the dam was threatened with collapse, according to investigators. An engineer from the organization responsible for the structure's safety, Dziv-2 LLC, has been arrested for two months.

On April 6, the Gejukh Dam collapsed in the Derbent District of Dagestan. More than 350 residents of the village of Mamedkala and surrounding villages were evacuated. The floodwaters washed several cars off the highway, killing at least four people. The total death toll from the floods in Dagestan has reached six.

The former general director of a company operating hydraulic structures in the Derbent district has been detained. He is suspected of violating safety regulations during construction and other work, as well as environmental protection regulations, according to the Russian Investigative Committee's website.

Investigators believe the suspect failed to ensure compliance with safety requirements, properly monitor the reservoir, and take measures to address the violations. Investigators will request his arrest, the report states.

Flooding caused by heavy rains has been ongoing in the North Caucasus since late March, and has become one of the most destructive in recent years. The disaster caused the greatest damage in Dagestan and Chechnya, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "Spring Flooding in the North Caucasus-2026." Six people died in the flooding in Dagestan, five of whom died in the village of Mamedkala and its environs: a pregnant 17-year-old local resident, a 12-year-old child, a five-year-old girl and her grandmother, as well as 70-year-old Aminat Musayeva, who was missing for three days. Earlier, on April 5, in the village of Kirki in the Kaitag District, a resident of a house destroyed by a landslide, local village council member Kistaman Mazanova, died. Authorities reported payments of one million rubles to the families of the victims.

The Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences linked regular flooding in Dagestan to a combination of natural processes and anthropogenic impacts, which increases the scale of natural disasters and increases the risks for people.

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Translated automatically via Google translate from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/422402