Muscovites are preparing for cold showers as the authorities begin shutting off hot water throughout the city Tuesday, an annual ritual required to clean and maintain the water pipes ahead of the new heating season.
The shut-off, which is to cover all Moscow districts by Aug. 31, will last two weeks for most buildings, just as it did in 2009, said Raifa Bitkova, a spokeswoman for Moscow Integrated Power Company, or MOEK, which operates the city's generators and power lines.
But a number of houses whose pipes have been completely replaced will need to manage only one or two days without hot water. "Replacement of pipes proceeds step by step as old pipes get out of order," Bitkova told The Moscow Times.
MOEK plans to replace more than 258 kilometers of pipes this summer, the company said in a statement.
The company has managed the Moscow heating system since 2005 and has already renovated more than 3,700 kilometers of pipes using new technologies, the statement said.
MOEK spent 8.02 billion rubles ($265 million) last year on pipe maintenance, and it plans to invest at least as much in 2010, Bitkova said.
But it is not yet clear when the overhaul of the Moscow water service will be completed.
The process was expected to take five to six years, but it was slowed down by the economic crisis, Bitkova said.
Meanwhile, a long summer shut-off is still better than the alternative. "Pipe maintenance is a preventative measure needed to avoid any danger of the breakdown [of the heating system] in winter," Bitkova said.
Most Russians said they would deal without hot water the way they normally do.
Boiling water on the stove and using a basin to shower in the bathroom is the preferred method for 45 percent of 1,800 respondents in a nationwide survey that the SuperJob.ru Research Center conducted for The Moscow Times.
About 20 percent of respondents said they had purchased an electric water heater, while 6 percent wash at their relatives' or friends' homes, and 9 percent just take a shower in cold water, which they said is refreshing in the summertime.
About 3 percent of respondents said they would take a hot bath at a banya.
Yury Butorin, a deputy director of Sandunovskiye Bani, the oldest banya in Moscow, said the number of clients in his banya "increases substantially" during the hot water shut-off.
Many families bring their children, and clients who typically show up once a week start coming twice a week, or even more often, Butorin said.
"This year … the banya will open earlier to let people wash before going to work," he said in an e-mailed statement.
A visit to a Moscow banya runs anywhere from 350 to 800 rubles (about $12 to $26) per person per hour.
The schedule of shut-offs by house, as well as the telephone number of the hot-water hotline, are available on the MOEK customer service web site.
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