Foreign Visitors to Water Museum Stunned (ошеломлены) by Russian Wastefulness

In all, Water Museum has three rooms dedicated (посвящать) to different periods of water-supply and sewerage development in Moscow. The main exhibits (экспонат) there are historical documents: building plans, clippings from old newspapers, and yellowed photographs. What impressed me the most were wooden models of ancient water towers (башня).

I learned that the early Kremlin water supply period goes back to the 14^th century. At the time, city residents laid the first oak (дуб) water pipes from Kremlin towers to the river. From then on, until this century, modernization and development of the Moscow water supply system had been the exclusive domain of foreigners. The first official Russian water supply system appeared in Moscow in the 18^th century. Engineer Bauer was the first to address the water shortage problem. He chose the Yauza River, near the settlement of Bolshiye Mytishchi, as a source of water supply for the capital. Water was pumped through underground galleries. Muscovites received about 4,000 bucketfuls (полных ведер) of water daily. Every year the capital expanded, demanding (требовать) more and more drinking water. In the 1830s, Baron Delwig (cousin of A. Delwig, a friend of Pushkin) used cast iron (чугун) pipes and steam (пар) machines to modernize and expand the existing system. The museum has also plenty of information about fountains, the first of which appeared in the capital under Nicholas II.

The museum does not have very many visitors, but when they come, they come in large groups, including from abroad. Recently, it hosted (принимать гостей) a group of tourists from Berlin and Amsterdam. What strikes them most about our water supply system is that Russia is the world’s largest water consumer. According to Lydia Vandergucht, the museum director, the capital uses up to six million cubic meters of water daily. The trouble is that Muscovites simply do not know how to save water and do not particularly care if their taps are leaky. As a result we suffer (терпеть) colossal losses.

Now a little about sewers without which no civilized city can exist. The first sewerage system in the capital appeared in the late 19^th century. It only served Moscow’s central area. As Moskovsky Vestnik wrote at the time, the authorities spent about nine million rubles on this “incomprehensible (непонятный) installation”. Prior to that, said Lydia Vandergucht, the city was “positively filthy (грязный)”. Muscovites used exclusively outside latrines (отхожее место) – cesspools that were cleared very rarely (редко).

From Moscow News, by Yelena Starovoitova

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