Volgograd failed to cope with the sewerage – Picture of the day – Kommersant

In Volgograd, on the night of October 28, a major utility accident occurred: on the slope of the floodplain of the Tsaritsa River, a concrete channel collapsed, in which a sewer was laid. As a result, two districts of the city were left without water supply and sewerage. The cause of the incident turned out to be old sewer pipes laid more than 50 years ago in violation of technology and have not changed since then. The prosecutor’s office reports a possible initiation of a criminal case.

Volgograd Water Supply Concessions LLC (manages the city’s water supply and sanitation networks) reported that on the night of October 28, a concrete canal arch collapsed on the slope of the floodplain of the Tsaritsa River. It houses a sewer collector serving the Voroshilovsky and Sovetsky districts of the city. According to the company, both the concrete channel and the collector were laid more than 50 years ago.

As a result, one of the two sewer pipelines with a diameter of 1200 mm was damaged. The organization has temporarily suspended water supply. The prosecutor’s office of the Volgograd region reported that the supply of hot and cold water was stopped in more than 1.1 thousand apartment buildings, 17 thousand private households and a number of social facilities. Water supply was organized for residents. “Water carriers run continuously in the Sovetsky and Voroshilovsky districts. In total, several dozen water carriers are involved, including municipal enterprises that provided their equipment,” the press service of the Water Supply Concessions specified.

Due to the accident, sewage flooded the Zero Longitudinal Mainline. However, traffic along it was difficult on Thursday due to heavy rain, clogged storm drains and failure of local treatment facilities for unknown reasons. Drainage also flooded the square in the floodplain of the Queen.

On Saturday, the administration of Volgograd announced the introduction of a municipal emergency regime in the Voroshilovsky and Sovetsky districts of the city.

Traffic along the Zero Longitudinal Highway was suspended. “A round-the-clock duty of the administration’s senior staff has been organized, a task force has been sent to the site,” the Volgograd mayor’s office specified. “Among other things, the emergency situation allows you to quickly make all the necessary decisions, attract the forces and means of third-party organizations without lengthy approvals and formal procedures.”

On Sunday, the governor of the Volgograd region, Andrey Bocharov, announced the creation of an operational headquarters to eliminate the accident. He noted that Volgograd faced “one of the largest man-made accidents in the last decade, which is complex and affects a number of life support areas of the city.” The head of the region demanded that by the evening of October 31, the work of the sewer system of the city was ensured according to a temporary scheme. He also instructed to carry out a phased connection of Volgograd boiler houses to supply heat by the end of the next day. “The problem is quite significant, but despite this, with the involvement of specialists, we managed to find an emergency section within a day, and a procedure was developed. We plan for ourselves that by the end of the next day we will fully connect the sewer collector according to the backup scheme. This is our number one task,” said Mr. Bocharov.

It turned out that the city authorities and utility companies do not have reliable design estimates for the collector. It also turned out that instead of a concrete collector, the drains went through a metal pipe, which eventually rotted and collapsed. According to the governor, there may be many such sites throughout the city. The prosecutor’s office has already sent a decision to the investigating authorities to resolve the issue of initiating a criminal case on the fact of improper performance of work and provision of services that do not meet safety requirements. The prosecutor of Volgograd submitted to the head of Volgograd and the general director of Water Supply Concessions LLC a proposal to eliminate the identified violations, including in terms of improper monitoring of the state of the sewerage system, untimely maintenance and repair of the sewer collector.

Sergey Petunin, Saratov