Some of the newly let land is upstream from the Mzymta River. Environmentalists warn that building resorts in these areas will increase the risk of landslides and destructive floods.
Construction could worsen the quality of water in the Mzymta River, which is the main water source for more than 100,000 people living in the Adler area, the WWF report says.
From 2010 to 2013, landslides size ranged from 5,000 to 20,000 cubic meters. In May 2017, a landslide with an area of roughly 3 hectares descended on the Gorki Gorod ski resort course, the Izvestiya newspaper reported.
Despite the threats to the environment and water supply, Sochi residents are largely unmoved by the recent developments.
“Unfortunately, the majority of people are quite passive,” Shmunk said.
This comes down to the lack of public information about the construction plans and their environmental impact, he added.
“The materials that are brought to public meetings leave much to be desired,” Shmunk said. “You can feel a definite haste in the way the materials were prepared. Some of the statistics don’t correlate with each other.”