Dive Brief:
- A considerable amount of work went into creating the Olympics in Sochi and mountain-sport venues in Krasnaya Polyana, above the seaside resort, but the billions of dollars worth of work left one little village cut off and covered in dust.
- A high-speed rail line and a new highway link Sochi below and Krasnaya Polyana above, but neither has any connection on its way past Akhshtyr.
- Construction trucks rolling through the village day and night left inches of dust on everything at times, and authorities say it is absolutely forbidden to cross the tracks and highway on foot to reach the rickety footbridge over the Mzymta River to the next village.
Dive Insight:
Five years of trucks created the dust. A waste dump associated with a gravel quarry needed beginning in 2008 killed the villages water wells, so now it gets some water deliveries from authorities. Akhsthyr isn't the only community to feel left out of the Olympic boom, but its plight seems especially harsh.
