The Great Lake Baikal Water Shortage

You are probably asking youself how there could be a water shortage on the shores of a Lake that holds 20% of the world's fresh water. Actually, it hasn't anything to do with the lake. It has to do with russian plumbing. In the Pribaikalsy National Park Headquarters where we stayed (directly across from the lake), there wasn't enough water to even flush the toilet. Water from the sinks was a trickle. The owners pumped water out of the lake every morning into holding tanks around the building. These tanks fed the toilets and sinks. The problem though is that russian plumbing is so leaky that the toilet, if left on, would drain the tanks. Their solution is not to fix the toilets (that would be too easy), but instead to put a pail a water by the toilet (1 pail = 1 flush). Of course if the pail is empty...well, I decided there were two choices, either run a hose across the street into the lake and start the pump myself to fill the pail, or just sneak out leaving the problem to someone else.

Later I tried to empty a wash basin into the kitchen sink. Oops! Something sounded a bit sloshy. The sink drain pipe, only pushed up against the main pipe, came undone and dumped dish water all over the floor.

Another curious thing I noticed in Russia is that all the plumbing pipes are exposed and not hidden behind walls or in cabinets or under the floor. Perhaps frequent plumbing failures necessitate easy access. Russians use cheaps plactic pipes for drains, not even PVC, and that, coupled with all the wierd angles, usually spells trouble.

It doesn't end with the plumbing either. The doors are all hinged crooked. Janet got a surprise visit while in the bathroom one day. The lock didn't line up with the door jam. The solution? Do nothing. Most doors seem to stick in the door jambs. If you shut them you may never get out. It seems that if something breaks, it just does, end of story. Nothing is state-of-the-art here, rather it is state-of-decay.

But you have to admire the russians for keeping things running, there isn't much to work with, or at least wasn't for many years. They seem to keep there old Lada cars running forever. Many of the busses look like they go back to the 50s. Salaries here are not necessarily high, 500 rubles/month (around $20), is all some of them make, so they have to be resourceful to make ends meet. But you have to wonder if they did the job right the first time, or tried to really fix things instead of using bandaids all the time, they might be better off in the long run.