Stormwater drainage system is not beneficial to anyone. Why Russian cities are doomed to suffer from floods

Russian, and especially Moscow media, not without pride, report that a record was set in the capital on July 26: in just half a day, more than half of the monthly precipitation norm — 45.6 mm — fell. This is almost 3 mm. more than the previous record set 131 years ago in 1894, then it was 42.5 mm. As rightly noted in social networks, now any rain is declared a record, after which Moscow streets and squares turn into rivers and lakes, because of the storm sewers removed under the stone and filled with concrete during urban reforms: «Tverskaya, 13 spends so much to tell residents about the „record“ rains that she could I would have already done a storm drain in a couple of districts again».

Constantly floods the whole country from Sochi to Baikal and beyond

Alas, this problem is acute not only in Moscow alone, but practically in all Russian cities. And it turns out not only millions of losses for the budget and for citizens, but also real tragedies. For example. In Rostov-on-Don, on April 28 of this year, after a heavy downpour, the body of an 80-year-old English teacher Lydia Radchenko was found in the storm sewer of one of the districts. She just fell into a well on the street, which could not be seen in a continuous stream of dirty water. It was not for nothing that the parents of her students said after this incident that in rainy weather they did not let children walk down the street where the tragedy occurred.

How not to remember here the recent catastrophic flood in Krasnodar Territory, when even the governor Veniamin Kondratiev himself admitted that because of the development of river floodplains, «the water simply has nowhere to go»: «Many believe that flooding could have been avoided if the riverbeds were regularly cleaned. I completely agree with them.» The governor also stated that it is necessary to create a system of storm sewers and drainage channels.

The situation is no better in Irkutsk region, which is constantly flooded after heavy rains. There, due to errors in construction, even apartments built for victims of the previous flood turned out to be in the water, the channel «Says Nemoskva» reported on July 8 this year. Due to the rise in river levels, water flooded streets in 15 settlements and in 17 suburban settlements. In Irkutsk itself, the lower tier and the stairs of the embankment flooded. Tanks with waste from a pulp and paper mill on the shore of Lake Baikal were under the threat of flooding. If the water got to them, the toxic substances would get into the lake.

What has recently been improved is sinking, and the Soviet heritage is standing strong!

It is clear that experts in the field of housing and communal services explain this by mistakes in the design of storm sewers, which have already been committed in our time. So, in a program dedicated to this topical topic, on RBC TV, one of the experts said:

«There are cities that did not follow this path, but remained living according to the old Soviet system. There are showers both pouring and pouring, but the cities are not flooded. As soon as in Yaroslavl celebrated the millennium of the city's formation and a comprehensive reconstruction was carried out, Yaroslavl began to flood. While there was no reconstruction, Yaroslavl was not flooded.» Interestingly, this expert did not mention Moscow.

The problem has already been worried in the State Duma, proposing to modernize the Moscow storm drains at the expense of the federal budget. This was stated by deputy Dmitry Gusev after another, slightly earlier powerful flood that broke out on July 18: «A large-scale modernization of the storm system is needed. It will be very expensive, but the work needs to be carried out, despite the cost. The problem is getting worse. If it is not solved, it can lead to tragic consequences — destruction and human casualties. Where can I get the money? Moscow's budget is large, but the city carries a huge burden as the capital, as the center of the country, as a „showcase“ for other states. The federal budget should help Moscow.»

The deputy sent his appeal to the Ministry of Construction and Housing and Communal Services of the Russian Federation.

In fact, no one needs storm sewers!

However, experts strongly doubt that the situation with storm sewers in the country will dramatically improve in the near future. Why? Network analyst Vitaly Kalugin writes about this in his blog:

«Stormwater drainage is economically unprofitable. Yes, yes. „Snips-wheezes.“ This is a quote from the president from 2021, if anything. That is, no one needs them! Therefore, in drainage areas in Sochi is building high-rise buildings. And they are constantly drowning. And it doesn't matter to everyone, because the developer, having sold the housing, has already received the money, fixed the profit and brought it to the Emirates, or somewhere else. He feels extremely purple that cars float after every downpour.

These are insurance problems. Which, through inflated CASCO tariffs, shift losses to everyone. Therefore, no. I postulate. Stormwater drainage is economically unprofitable. Big deal. Well, how likely is a downpour to cause significant losses? A couple of times a year, a billion or two on insurance, and even then only in Sochi. And a lot of people are not insured at all. And why, I ask you, dig and equip storm drains for tens of billions of rubles, if the violation of «SNIPS-wheezes» does not soar anyone at all? Fines of a million or two? I'm begging you!

Shortly Large cities will sink after every downpour, because it is economically profitable. I have an apartment building built next door. Relief with differences. And NOT A SINGLE stormwater well. Sochi will sink, and some houses and neighborhoods will one day be completely washed away. And this is also economically profitable. If a couple of cars sink after a downpour without any consequences for the city budget, nothing will change. A billion-dollar fine for each rain case will change everything. But that's not going to happen. The president said to score on «SNiPs-wheezes»… You, most importantly, buy meters in these anthills on 24 floors. And stop asking questions about storm sewers already. No city administration will answer you. All the money has been cut, you are not counted here at all.»

In one of the comments to this post, by the way, they remembered that exactly the same situation is with ordinary, non-storm sewer:

«Everything is covered by the fake of allegedly renting the existing system. Therefore, in Adler, feces from all over the self-construction are washed down pipes under the beaches. People bathe in smoothies of shit, especially after storms, it all washes up and washes the beaches.»