Russia's Hot Water - Not!

From Russia Today:
"Moscow braces itself as city turns off hot water"

The time of year that every Muscovite dreads has come to the Russian capital, as the authorities have started turning off the hot water taps. ­Since Soviet times, switching off the hot water has been an obligatory and unpopular event all Muscovites go through for two weeks between May and August. The reason is that the pipes need to be checked for the upcoming winter.This year, however, the authorities promise that the annual ritual will be shorter than usual. The city’s new mayor Sergey Sobyanin has decided to turn the city's most dreaded summer traditions into history, cutting the inspection from two weeks to only ten days in total. In three to four years, it is planned to introduce a new technology of changing pipes that would require no water shut-down at all. Until the new technology is up and running, Muscovites continue coming up with different ways of warming up. One option is simply escaping from the city; others prefer going to a Russian sauna (banya) or simply make a visit to a luckier neighbor. While the city’s wealthy residents are digging into their pockets to buy a water heater, the majority still go for a method foolproof since Soviet times. The simplest survival kit includes a kettle and a basin. Just mix boiling water with the hot water – and enjoy your bath. And console yourself that in Soviet days, people were left without hot water for over a month.

^ I remember going through this several times in Yaroslavl -once even in Winter. It felt like living in a Third World country. When I tell friends and family about what I had to go through (ie washing myself and clothes with a bucket or travelling to another part of the city to take a shower at a friend's house that still had hot water) they think I am making it up to fit the traditional stereotypes of life in Russia. This article proves I was telling the truth since even the capital of the country has its hot water shut off. Hopefully, the country will modernize its heating and water systems soon in the whole country so it can be brought into the 2nd decade of the 21st Century. ^

http://rt.com/news/prime-time/hot-water-moscow-summer-945/