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Water conduit failure produces cold water outage in big W Russian city

The previous large-scale rupture occurred at the same water conduit last fall

TVER, April 28 (Itar-Tass) — A technology failure at a major water conduit has cut off cold water supplies to the majority of population in the city of Tver, which is located some 170 kilometers to the northwest of Moscow.

Tver is home to over 400,000 people.

“Equipment failure occurred at around 15:00 hours at the Tveretsky trunk conduit and the entire technical personnel of our company has been rushed to eliminate it,” said Yelena Shcherbakova, a spokeswoman for Tvervodokanal water supplies utility.

The conduit stretches at the depth of 3 meters below the surface and time might be needed to identify the spot of leakage and to remove water from there, she warned.

Tvervodokanal officials promised to complete the repair works by mid-afternoon Sunday or earlier. At the time of reporting, technical experts were considering a possibility of enacting a bypass-line water scheme.

The accident triggered amassed buy-ups of bottled freshwater at department stores, and lines of people queuing up to the slot machines selling water could be seen.

The regional branch of the Ministry for Emergency Situations and Civil Defense /EMERCOM/ dispatched its reserve freshwater truck cisterns to take water to maternity homes and other ‘facilities of social significance’.

The previous large-scale rupture occurred at the same water conduit last fall.