On September 7, about a hundred residents of the Kumtorkalinsky district of Dagestan came out to protest against the construction of a landfill near the Sarykum dune, which is part of the Dagestan Nature Reserve and has the status of a UNESCO biosphere reserve. Eight participants in the protest were detained by the police.

Protests against this construction have been going on since the spring; the reason for the latest gathering was the presentation of the landfill project, which took place at the Sarykum Hotel with the participation of the head of the republic, Sergei Melikov.

Protesting residents of villages located near the future landfill tried to get to the official event, but after lengthy negotiations, only six of them were allowed to attend the presentation. Moreover, at the entrance, their phones were taken away, apparently so that they would not film what was happening.

When one of the delegates began to say that local residents did not agree with the decision to build, Melikov interrupted him, demanding that he ask specific questions. But there was no answer to the question of whether a working group would be created to resolve this conflict issue.

Sarykum Dune is one of the largest solitary dunes in the world, about 250 meters high, located 18 kilometers north of Makhachkala. It is clearly visible from the highway connecting the capital of Dagestan with Khasavyurt. The dune has become very popular among tourists, with hundreds of people visiting it every day. In order to minimize the anthropogenic impact on the natural monument, employees of the Dagestan Nature Reserve built a metal path on piles to the top of the dune. An abandoned railway line to Buinaksk runs nearby. Near the railway station there are ticket offices, a museum, a cafe, horse rental and other tourist industry facilities. Between the dune and the highway there is another point of attraction for tourists - a huge poppy field.
There are several villages nearby - Novaya Urada, Novaya Shangoda, Shitlib, Tidib. As is clear from the names, they were founded by settlers from mountain villages who were engaged in transhumance. Some of the villages have grown significantly, but have not received official status, since they are located on agricultural land. Their residents are concerned not only about the threat to the protected dune, but also about more prosaic things: noise from trucks that will carry waste, stench, unsanitary conditions, smoke, environmental damage from non-degradable plastic, pollution of groundwater and air, which will lead to the degradation of their gardens. An example for them is the giant, eternally smoking landfill in Agach-aul on the southern exit from Makhachkala, where all the garbage of the Dagestani capital is now taken.

Makhachkala residents also fear that waste from the landfill will pollute the KOR, the open October Revolution Canal, which is one of the main sources of drinking water in the city.

The protesters are demanding that the landfill be moved to another location, but the authorities have already made a decision and do not intend to revise it.

The first protests took place back in April. In May, the environmental prosecutor's office suspended the construction of the landfill - it turned out that the project did not receive a positive conclusion from the state environmental assessment. On May 11, in Makhachkala, near the reception office of the President of the Russian Federation in Dagestan, tourist Elena Ovsienko held a solo picket against the construction of a waste landfill.

In August, Sergei Melikov announced that the project had passed all the assessments. Soon after, a video message from four mobilized residents of Dagestan appeared on social networks, who sent it to Melikov from Ukraine. "Dear Sergei Alimovich! We ask you to pay attention to the requests of the citizens of the village of Urada to move the construction of the waste processing plant to another location. “We are addressing you on behalf of the military personnel, the mobilized residents of Dagestan,” one of them says on camera.