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Drinking water often turns out to be the reason of enteric infections in Russia, says the chief sanitary inspector of Russia, Gennady Onitshenko. By his words, there are a lot of polluted resources of water supply in the country, the zones of sanitary care either don’t exist or in a very bad condition, a great number of water pipes are not equipped with water-treatment and disinfectant plants. Besides, the water pipes themselves are so worn-out that they can become the source of dangerous infections at any time. Local authorities are well aware about it, however, referring to financial troubles, they don’t hurry to do the thorough repairs until the disaster will break out. The neglect of local authorities quite often leads to damages. In 2003, there were 16 outbreaks of acute enteric infections that harmed 1325 people. In 2004, 19 damages made harm to 1716 people. And the situation doesn’t tend to improve.
One-sixth part of all the water resources of central water-supply doesn’t meet sanitary norms and regulations. Especially bad situation with the quality drinking water is in the Urals and Far East federal regions, in the north of Russia and in the South federal region.
In this situation many Russians filter running water that they use for cooking, some buy quality drinking water and some drive to natural streams on a regular basis and bring bottles of good water home.
So if you are planning to visit Russia, don’t use running water for drinking and cooking there. Better spend some money for buying bottles of quality water in shops and supermarkets.
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