22/11/2000 23:51 - (SA) 40 000 shiver in Vladivostok winter

Vladivostok - Heating for about 40 000 residents of Russia's Far East has been cut off for days as temperatures in the region plunged below freezing, officials said on Wednesday.

Such energy cuts have become an annual trauma for many residents of Russia's Pacific coast. The Primorye region, where Vladivostok is located, has regularly failed to prepare for the winter by making repairs and stockpiling fuel during the summer months. The situation has been exacerbated by political quarrels.

Duma to Call for Commission

The State Duma, the lower house of the parliament, is to discuss on Friday a draft resolution on the Primorye crisis, calling for formation of a special commission to examine the problem.

This year's outage has been blamed on everything from damaged equipment to mismanagement of funds. Regional and federal officials hotly blamed each other for the mess.

Schools & Hospitals Closed

Temperatures in unheated apartments averaged between 5 and 10 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, and some schools and hospitals were closed for lack of heat.

Most Russian apartments rely on hot water piped from massive, centralized heating stations which supply whole towns or districts. Leaks in the underground pipes are common and often go unrepaired, melting long trails through winter snow drifts in city parks and beside roads.

Blackouts

In addition to heating outages, Vladivostok and other Far Eastern towns were suffering rolling blackouts. They were caused by a jump in electricity demand as people plugged in portable electric heaters, said Nadezhda Okovitaya, a spokeswoman for the energy utility Dalenergo.

Dalenergo is also responsible for supplying hot water generated in its power plants to some towns. Kavalerovo, Partizansk and Artyom were the worst affected towns, with almost no heat, said Alexander Balykin, a spokesman for the regional emergencies situations department.

He blamed the outages on burst hot water mains and a lack of personnel to stoke boilers. In one neighbourhood, workers had not yet completed repairs on a central boiler, he said.

But this season is shaping up especially poorly. Dalenergo now has just one-fifth of the fuel oil and less than two-fifths of coal reserves it had at this time last year, Okovitaya said.

Coal Mines Closed

At a parliamentary hearing in Moscow on Wednesday, Primorye regional Governor Yevgeny Nazdratenko said the federal government had failed to pay subsidies to the region.

He also blamed the outage on high fuel prices and a program, mandated by international lending institutions, to close local coal mines. "We did our best to prepare for the winter," he said.

Alleged Financial Mismanagement

Anatoly Chubais, director of Russia's national electricity monopoly Unified Energy Systems, countered that local governments had failed to settle their debts with energy suppliers.

Chubais said local residents had also looted some heating equipment, creating technical problems.

He also said he had fired some leaders of Dalenergo and another regional energy provider, the Luchegorsk Fuel and Energy Complex, for alleged financial mismanagement.

He said that "the financial mechanism of the Far Eastern power sector has been destroyed so much, that the solutions ensuring rapid improvement of the situation can hardly be found," according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. - Sapa-AP

http://news.24.com/News24/World/Asia/0,1113,2-10-20_944204,00.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), November 22, 2000

Answers

Nando Times

40,000 without heat in Russia's Far East

By ANATOLY MEDETSKY, Associated Press

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (November 22, 2000 2:06 p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - Hospitals and schools were closed for lack of heat in Russia's frigid Far East, where heating for about 40,000 residents has been cut off for days, officials said Wednesday.

Such energy cuts have become an annual trauma for many residents of Russia's Pacific coast. The Primorye region, where Vladivostok is located, has regularly failed to prepare for the winter by not making repairs and not stockpiling fuel during the summer months.

The situation, which has been exacerbated by political quarrels, underlines the shaky services and poor quality of life that afflict much of Russia.

As temperatures outside plunged below freezing, temperatures in unheated apartments here averaged between 41 and 50 degrees on Wednesday, and some schools and hospitals were closed for lack of heat.

Most Russian apartments rely on hot water piped from massive, centralized heating stations that supply whole towns or districts. Leaks in the underground pipes are common and often go unrepaired, melting long trails through winter snow drifts in city parks and beside roads.

Besides heating outages, Vladivostok and other Far Eastern towns were suffering rolling blackouts. They were caused by a jump in electricity demand as people plugged in portable electric heaters, said Nadezhda Okovitaya, a spokeswoman for the energy utility Dalenergo.

Dalenergo is also responsible for supplying hot water generated in its power plants to some towns.

Kavalerovo, Partizansk and Artyom were the worst affected towns, with almost no heat, said Alexander Balykin, a spokesman for the regional emergency situations department. He blamed the outages on burst hot water mains and a lack of personnel to stoke boilers. In one neighborhood, workers had not yet completed repairs on a central boiler, he said.

This season is shaping up especially poorly for the region. Dalenergo has just one-fifth of the fuel oil and less than two-fifths of the coal reserves it had at this time last year, Okovitaya said.

At a parliamentary hearing in Moscow on Wednesday, Primorye regional Gov. Yevgeny Nazdratenko said the federal government had failed to pay subsidies to the region. He also blamed the outage on high fuel prices and a program mandated by international lending institutions to close local coal mines.

"We did our best to prepare for the winter," he said.

Anatoly Chubais, director of Russia's national electricity monopoly, countered that local governments had failed to settle their debts with energy suppliers. Chubais said local residents had also looted some heating equipment, creating technical problems.

He also said he had fired some leaders of Dalenergo and another regional energy provider for alleged financial mismanagement.

"The financial mechanism of the Far Eastern power sector has been destroyed so much that the solutions ensuring rapid improvement of the situation can hardly be found," he said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.

The State Duma, Russia's lower house of the parliament, plans to discuss a draft resolution on the Primorye crisis on Friday calling for formation of a special commission to examine the problem.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), November 22, 2000.