Massive Siberian oil spill leaves thousands without water

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Published time: April 26, 2012 18:29
Edited time: April 26, 2012 22:29

Cashing in on suffering

The incident disrupted the local water intake, which supplies water to three towns, leaving about 80,000 people without water.

Local authorities in the affected towns had to close schools and kindergartens in the area, though hospitals are working as usual.

The centralized water supply can be restored only after probes show that the oil concentration in the water is lower than the maximum permissible concentration.

Meanwhile, there are reports of merchants trying to cash in on the catastrophe by doubling and tripling prices for bottled water.

Authorities urged them not to turn a profit on the ecological disaster, and said they would closely monitor the situation to eliminate such cases.

Forty tons of free bottled water have been delivered in the affected are as emergency workers try to restore the intake's ability to operate.

Threat of ecological catastrophe

The oil leak may become a serious ecological problem if urgent measures are not taken to deal with the spill, WWF Russia official Aleksey Knizhnikov told Ria-Novosti.

The incident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya power plant revealed that Russia's emergency services were not ready for an oil spill in the river, because it is a rare case, he explained.

"Unfortunately no recovery operations can fully clear the river from the oil spill; floating barriers will just localize between 20 and 30 per cent of the spill,” he said, adding that time is working against cleanup teams.

Comments (7)

David (unregistered) 06.08.2012 18:43

I dont understand why the world has to included us in there proplems. We are doing what we can to help ourselfs and try to help others. I am not happy with how our own goverment runs thing. But i do understand that they are doing the best they can with what they have to work with. Maby you should look into your own problems and not make the USA the kicking post!! It seems that we go out to help. Put lifes on the line. Maby make a mistake or two. But i sure dont see other countrys put out as much help as we do. And the USA still gets blamed for what there country wants us to do. Just look at history, then look at the bigger picture. If you have an open mind, YOU would not talk bad about the USA. We are trying! WHAT ARE YOU DOING???????

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SMJ 27.04.2012 16:05

Lena - wonderful - you have articulated the truth better than I ever could! Sadly though you may as well have posted some ridiculous conspiracy theory nonsense like the majority of posters on these comments. The problem is that no matter how rational and sensbile and well thought out your arguments are 'they' simply do not listen to reason and much prefer to spout the usual nonsense about Zionists, Jewish conspiracies, The CIA, Mossad etc. My dear departed Grandfather taught me the best phrase '10 wise men cannot asnwer the utterances of a fool' sadly that phrase has never been truer on this website. I agree with your point about Stalin too but careful what you say - too much truth and they pull your comment down.

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Lena (unregistered) 27.04.2012 10:39

All of you pontificating dunces - why can't you just read through� �RT's spin and anti-American propaganda and focus on the problem at hand, which is that, with economic progress and development, whether one likes it or not, Russia is beginning to resemble America and, in doing so, is bound to copy its failures. Yet, the self-proclaimed pseudo-protagonists of Russia still keep idealising Russia and its current government (not to mention Stalin) and jump every time someone dares be crytical of Russia and its government or even ask a reasonable question - all, supposedly, in order to create some sort of counter-balance to America, regardless of all those failures and other things like corruption, crime and social injustice when, in substance, there is not much difference between them. It is just a question of time.

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