Valley of "geysers" in Rostov Veliky: what is hidden behind the communal disaster

Lyudmila Diskova, Yaroslavl region

In Rostov Veliky, work continues on the elimination of a large communal accident that happened on Saturday, February 13. Then, as a result of the water hammer, the equipment of the boiler house No. 38, serving one of the districts of Rostov, was out of order. More than three thousand people were left without heat. The numerous pipe breaks that followed equipment breakdowns have turned city streets into a skating rink. In some places, fountains of boiling water gushed for several hours in a row. Only on February 17 was it possible to resume the supply of heat to all residential buildings. However, the area is still in places similar to a valley of geysers - steam rises from heating mains, envelops houses and people passing by.

“That Saturday I worked so hard that I decided to lie down on the sofa and relax,” says Tatyana Karaseva. - My apartment is warm, I try not to close the windows even in winter, I go at home in a light robe. And here I lie and understand - I'm cold. I got up to close the window, began to straighten the curtain and touched the battery, but it is cold! I got scared, I began to call the neighbors, to the emergency gang... So I learned that we had an accident at the boiler room. Well, I thought they would do everything quickly. What is there! On Sunday morning, the workers were brought from Yaroslavl. They were here knee-deep in water for hours doing something with the pipes.

- My apartment windows overlook the boiler room, - says Alexey Smirnov. - On Saturday evening I heard something start to click in the batteries, and then they cooled down. From the window I saw everyone running around in the boiler room, equipment arrived, they were doing something there all night. The floodlights were shining in full force. On Sunday I was going to the store to buy groceries, and I couldn't leave the entrance - there was water all around...

Until now, at the house on Spartakovskaya Street, 111, where Alexey Smirnov lives, there are fallen trees, workers are closing the damaged heating main. They came to Rostov from Rybinsk. In addition to the residents of Rybinsk, teams of specialists from Uglich, Yaroslavl, Rostov took part in the liquidation of the accident ...

It is not yet clear how much the work to eliminate all the consequences of the accident will cost, because in winter it is impossible to carry out the entire volume of repair work - the main ones are planned for the summer.

Viktor Nezhenets, Deputy Prime Minister of the Yaroslavl Region, said that the accident that happened is the result of the fact that the wear and tear of the communal infrastructure in the Rostov Region is high, on average for heat supply facilities, he said, is about seventy percent.

It is clear that Mr. Nezhenets is talking not only about the microdistrict served by the 38th boiler house. He talks about the city as a whole. According to him, the last major overhaul of heating systems in Rostov was carried out in 2003-2005. Then, as the road builders say, repairs were carried out with maps, that is, the most worn sections of pipes were changed. Today, these patches are visible even to a layman.

However, it is not worth hoping that in the near future teams of repairmen will come to the city to carry out a major overhaul. So far, the authorities are very cautious about the fact that this summer in Rostov “measures are planned to replace more than one kilometer of heating networks, as well as the construction of 800 meters of new heating networks and a central heating point. Boiler room 38 will also be reconstructed. New boilers, heat exchangers, pumps will be installed there, and the reserve fuel economy will be updated. When asked about the sources of financing for the renovation work, the officials say that they are waiting for help in this matter from the federal center. It will not be possible to carry out them on our own.

- How much do you say the cost of repairing one kilometer of heating systems? Twenty millions? - Alexey Smirnov asks. - And here I somehow took and counted how much money per year only residents of our five-story building pay for heating and hot water. I got almost two million. This is what a lot of money! And there are so many houses nearby!

Many people agree with Alexey, they say that the numbers in receipts are increasing every year, but the quality of services has not improved.

- For heating, they add up all the time, and no one has been repairing pipes for many years, says Tatyana Korsakova. - They tear like cardboard. It is impossible to walk around the city today, it is either in water or in ice. Our authorities do not seem to see all this ...

Today, when the accident happened, officials offered residents of the affected apartments to live in the recreation center or at the stadium, in the premises where athletes change their clothes. But after all, to put it mildly, it was completely uncomfortable - cool, no water, and there was nowhere to sleep. It was then that cots with mattresses were brought...

Tatyana and I go into the apartments of those where the heat came only on Wednesday afternoon.

Svetlana from Fevralskaya Street takes care of her grandfather, who recently turned 93 years old.

- Our grandfather doesn't get up anymore. When the heating was turned off, we covered him with all the blankets that we had, and put bottles of hot water on top so that he would warm our hands. Move it somewhere? How do you imagine that? We live on the third floor. Who will ever bring him down? And we have nowhere to go...

Katya, the mother of a seven-month-old baby from a house in Okruzhnaya Street, still cannot recover. When we entered her apartment, there was still no water. No. Frozen all over. But, it seems, she didn't even pay attention to it, she was gladdened by the fact that the batteries had warmed up.

- Now they just turned on the heating! - She says with delight. - We sent the older children to their grandmother on Saturday, but we ourselves stayed with the baby. How will you leave? And what if some trouble happens - they give heating and the batteries will burst. What will be in the apartment?

While we were listening to Katya, something rumbled through the pipes, and she ran to turn on the water in the bathroom. A yellow liquid poured out of the tap, but this did not upset the woman: “Everything is fine! At least some water is flowing!"

The authorities of Rostov, like the authorities of all cities of the Yaroslavl region, reported on their readiness for the winter of 2020-2021 in a timely manner. However, what is meant by this very readiness is a big question, because network failures are not at all uncommon here. The fact is that, according to an established custom, each next generation of local and regional officials nods at their predecessors, accusing them of doing nothing for many years, but now they have to "clean up the rubble" - to repair roads, heating mains, boiler houses , hospitals, schools ... This process has been repeated for decades. The feeling is that we live in some kind of vicious circle, from which there is simply no way out.

Photos are made by the author.