LIFE launched a special project "There is no such thing as alien water"

Dozens of volunteers from different cities arrived in Dagestan after the flood. Many took vacations at their own expense, leaving their jobs, studies, loved ones, pets, and the familiar life of a big city. Not by compulsion, but by an inner call – when it became impossible to watch the news from the outside.

Special project Life.ru "There is no such thing as strange water" is the story of one such guy. The Moscow student left his girlfriend, dog and his usual chores at home to go to Dagestan and help people after the big water. Through him, the authors of the project showed not only the work of volunteers, but also the tragedy of the region itself — through a man who found himself inside someone else's trouble and realized that it could not be someone else's.

In the frame is a hard and very mundane job. Pump out the water, clear the yard, take out the damaged things, bring the most necessary things, talk to those who lost their familiar home in one day. For the locals, it's not just helping with their hands. This is a sign that they were not left alone with the consequences of the disaster.

The flood hit Dagestan after heavy rains. Houses, household plots, roads and entire settlements were in the flood zone. The situation became especially difficult in Mammadkale, where, after the breakthrough of the Gejukh reservoir dam, water entered the residential sector, and people had to be evacuated from the danger zone.

"There is no such thing as strange water" is a report about Dagestan after the flood and about a Moscow student who became a guide to this story. About how a big disaster tests people's ability not to pass by. And about why help doesn't start with big words, but with a simple decision: drop everything and go.