In Moscow, dinner invite includes a shower
A Reuters report says that for many of Moscow’s residents summer means dinner parties that revolve around having a shower.
Moscow authorities have switched off the hot water for annual repairs to the Soviet-era pipeline system, forcing millions of Muscovites to shiver through cold showers, shower at a friend’s house – or not shower at all.
“It’s not very comfortable but it’s not death,” 64-year-old Irina Averina said as she headed for the metro after leaving work on a muggy afternoon in Moscow.
“Most people boil a saucepan of water and mix it with cold water before pouring it over themselves.”
Moscow’s population has swelled rapidly to over 10 million since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and high energy and mineral prices have boosted the economy over the last few years.
Skyscrapers now pepper the Russian capital’s skyline and Bentleys glide past shops selling the latest fashions, but its Soviet built infrastructure groans under the pressure.
“Traditionally, the hot water is shut off for 21 days but in some parts of the capital the disconnection will be much shorter,” the Moscow United Energy Company (MOEK) said on its website.
MOEK controls the centralized municipal system that pumps hot water around Moscow. The first district in Moscow lost its hot water for three weeks on May 10 and the last will lose it on August 6.
Muscovites have adapted to living for a few weeks each year without hot water although accidents happen.
The death of the much-loved Soviet actor Anatoly Papanov in August 1987 was blamed on the lack of hot water. The 64-year-old died of a heart attack while taking a cold shower.
Tactics for dealing without hot water also include dousing yourself in cheap aftershave or perfume – noticeable on Moscow’s close, stuffy metro system – and showering at friends’ houses.
“We just organise parties at houses with hot water,” 16-year-old Tanya Lekvich said walking alongside her friend.
Other cities across Russia also switch off the hot water supplies and although the number of households which own water boilers has increased most people in a country where the average salary per month is about $US700 ($NZ927) still do not own one.
And neither do most of the gyms in Moscow. Attendance at Russia’s saunas spikes during the hot water drought. But the gyms, also hit by the hot water cut-off, empty out.
“People just don’t want to have cold showers,” said one of the trainers at a gym near the centre of Moscow normally crowded with svelte woman toning their stomachs and muscle-bound men pumping weights.
“There are about 80 per cent fewer people using the gym at the moment.”
A Report by The Mole from Reuters
John Alwyn-Jones
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