Flood in Russia: between natural causes and neglect – 04/11/2024 – World

Melting ice in the Ural Mountains and incessant rain caused floods in several regions of Russia. The most affected city is Orsk, on the Ural River in Orenburg province, where a dam broke. Within a few days, the water level reached two meters; houses and the first floors of residential buildings were flooded. More than 6,400 inhabitants were evacuated, at least two died. In total, more than 10,000 buildings in the area are under water.

Iekaterina, from Orsk, says that on the morning of April 5, her parents, who live near the dam, noticed leaks. At night there was already a hole: her house was flooded within three hours. The family found shelter on the outskirts of the city, with friends.

Once the water has receded, Iekaterina hopes to be able to recover some of her possessions, but repairs can only begin when authorities have determined the extent of the damage. “There are tens of thousands of houses like this, who knows when our turn will come. But where are we going to live? Furthermore, the subsidies will hardly cover the costs of reconstruction.”

Ielena Matveievskaya’s house was also flooded: “The first floor was underwater, but it was possible to save some of the furniture on the second floor.” In the meantime, her husband and son returned to the house to observe, as looters were seen there.

Corruption or natural causes?

Matveievskaia is part of an initiative that on April 8 was able to speak with the governor of the Orenburg region, Denis Pasler. At the same time, hundreds of angry citizens gathered in front of the city hall building. Some shouted “Shame!” and demanded the resignation of municipal leaders; others recorded a video in which they shouted in unison: “Putin, help!”

The spontaneous demonstration was immediately dispersed by the police, claiming it was an illegal meeting. However, the angry crowd continued to complain that state services were not prepared for the flood and that, days before the collapse, leaks had already been found in the dam.

Matveievskaia says that during the meeting with the governor, suspicions were expressed that one of the reasons for the catastrophe was corrupt collusion within the local leadership: “A girl told Denis Pasler that her grandfather, who participated in the construction of the dike, had to take the half of the rubble and construction material for the mayor’s private construction site.” According to the governor, however, the cause would be “unusual flooding.”

The Orsk authorities promise help to the population: up to 100 thousand rubles (R$5,450) for those whose houses were completely flooded, in other cases between 10 thousand (R$541) or 50 thousand rubles (2,706).

War against Ukraine before disaster relief

The Kremlin previously reacted with reticence to the events in Orsk. According to his spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, President Vladimir Putin did not intend to visit the affected regions, but would be continuously addressing the issue. Several heads of ministry have already flown to the scene of the catastrophe, by presidential order.

However, a statement from the Minister of Civil Defense left the population even more indignant: according to Aleksandr Kurenkov, throughout the week before the flood, attempts had been made to evacuate the population, but the announcement was “dismissed as a joke”.

It is said that, the day before the collapse, the municipality assured the inhabitants that the dam would survive. On April 3, Mayor Vasili Kozupitsa wrote on his messaging platform Telegram channel that he had inspected the dike, spoken to residents, and that they were not afraid of flooding.

In the meantime, federal investigative agencies opened an investigation into negligence and violation of construction standards, attributing the failure to a lack of maintenance measures.

However, federal departments do not want to take responsibility for repairing the consequences of the catastrophe, criticizes political scientist Abbas Galliamov, noting that in authoritarian Russia, where every climate of protest in society is repressed, state authorities are increasingly losing “human qualities”. .

“People are entrenched on the leadership floors, imbued with the logic of vertical state power, forgetting that the population is also a subject.” He does not believe that the government will intensify aid to flood victims, giving priority to financing the Russian war against Ukraine. At the moment, local authorities estimate the damage from the flood in the province of Orenburg at more than 20 billion rubles (almost R$110 million).