Dam break in Orsk, which led to large-scale flooding, could have occurred due to the fact that the structure was not properly maintained, follows from the message of the prosecutor's office of the Orenburg region. Whether this is so remains to be determined during the investigation of the criminal case. From open sources – in particular, the government procurement portal – it follows that Since 2021, local authorities have cut annual dam operating costs by more than a third. At the same time, Rostechnadzor inspections revealed violations in the maintenance of the structure, but there is no information that they were corrected. All this could expand the circle of people who will ultimately be held accountable for what happened, lawyers believe. About who may be to blame for the disaster in the Orenburg region and how the fight against the elements is going on — in the material of Izvestia.
“We woke up at night – the basement was completely flooded…”
Houses flooded to the windows and seething streams of water on the streets – this is what the districts of Orsk closest to the Ural River looked like by the morning of April 6, where the dam burst the night before. In some places travel was only possible by boat, and on many other roads only heavy trucks could travel. And even that’s not all, the Izvestia correspondent, who visited the scene of the emergency, was convinced.
“Cars are still driving along the flooded road in the direction of the Old Town in Orsk; from this section to the center it’s about three kilometers,” he said. – And then everything is – neither pass nor pass.
On the morning of April 6, the water level increased so much that it became almost impossible to move without the help of special equipment, the Ministry of Emergency Situations reported. Water continued to flow into the old part of Orsk, where the private sector is mainly located, throughout the night and throughout the day. The evacuation of people here began the evening before – before the dam broke.
“There were no signs of trouble when, on April 5, in the late afternoon, police with flashing lights started driving along our street, — Orsk resident Daria Chitaeva told Izvestia. — They used a loudspeaker to announce the evacuation and collection of things.
At that moment, not all residents wanted to leave; many preferred to stay in their houses. Daria’s parents did the same – they sent their daughters to relatives, while they themselves stayed at home in the hope that the water would not reach them (the family lived on the second floor). And they sheltered two neighboring families who lived on the floor below.
But at night the situation worsened sharply.
— The parents woke up when they heard a sound. – said Daria. — My father went downstairs and saw that the basement of the house was completely flooded. They urgently began to pack their things, and a boat was prepared in the yard. And they swam on this boat to the nearest rescuers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. They transported them to a safe place.
According to the girl, the water in the house “filled up in 10 minutes, the entire first floor was flooded.” Daria noted that many Orchan residents tried to help each other in some way that day.
“I am very grateful to our taxi drivers, who worked completely free of charge at night and took people to safe places, to relatives,” she said.
On Saturday, rescuers continued to visit flooded private houses. – in special waterproof equipment, knee-deep in water, they hardly made their way to the houses to see if there were any inhabitants there. Many of those who previously refused to evacuate themselves turned for help and asked to be taken to a safe zone, the Ministry of Emergency Situations reported.
People who could not move independently were literally carried out in their arms. Thus, police officer Ruslan Umargaleev told Izvestia how he pulled a disabled person out of a flooded house on his back.
“On Friday at 18.30 a gathering of personnel was announced, we went to evacuate people,” the policeman recalls. — In one of the houses we found a disabled person; he could not move independently. All approaches to his house and courtyard buildings were flooded. From this house we also saved his mother – also disabled – and his brother.
In addition to people, rescuers on boats, all-terrain vehicles and all-terrain vehicles evacuated the remaining animals from the city. The Ministry of Emergency Situations showed footage of a rescuer on a boat taking a frightened dog out of a flooded city.
There are 242 people in temporary accommodation centers in the Orenburg region, including 73 children, provided data as of April 6 to the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Psychologists work in each temporary detention center. According to the service, 711 people were evacuated, including 210 children.
After an investigation by the prosecutor’s office into the fact of a dam break, investigators opened a criminal case under two articles at once – violation of safety rules during construction work (Article 216 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and negligence (Article 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
“During the inspection it was established that the authorized bodies did not take timely measures to maintain the hydraulic structure in proper technical condition, and therefore on April 5, 2024, a dam broke“, the press service of the prosecutor’s office of the Orenburg region reported on April 6.
Why did the dam fail?
The authorities decided to build a dam in Orsk in 2010 — it was then that a resolution was signed to allocate money for this project. The estimated cost of the facility, according to the document, is almost 932 million rubles. “The dam should protect the city on both sides and permanently solve the problem of the threat of flooding during floods,” – said Viktor Franz, who was then the head of Orsk.
The customer of the project was the State Unitary Enterprise “Oblzhilkomkhoz”, the general contractor was the company “Spetsstroy-3” from Novotroitsk, Orenburg region. The project was developed by the Yuzhuralfundamentproekt company (closed in 2019). The chief engineer of the project was Lyubov Baeva; after the dam was put into operation, she even received the municipal award “For Conscientious Service”, II degree.
In 2014, the Federal Financial Supervision Service revealed a violation of the procedure for spending budget funds during the execution of the contract and issued an order to ensure that the contractor returns “unreasonably spent funds.”
Photo: TASS/Egor Aleev
The order was based on an examination carried out during the audit, which established that 51.2 million rubles were spent unreasonably: it turned out that the customer paid the contractor for work that was not actually performed.
“Oblzhmlkomkhoz” did not agree and challenged the service's order. The courts sided with the customer and declared the order of the Finnish Supervision Service illegal.
Rostekhnadzor in June 2020 identified violations in the maintenance of the dam – it issued an order of 38 comments to the municipality on whose balance sheet the facility is located and imposed an administrative fine of 20 thousand rubles, the department’s press service told Izvestia.
The owner had to eliminate the comments by 2022, however, due to the current moratorium on inspections, it remains unclear whether the officials complied with the department’s requirements.
After this, Rostechnadzor sent several more warnings to the Orsk administration, the last one in February 2024.
In December 2023, the city administration entered into a contract with the municipal enterprise Spetsavtotechupravlenie for the operation and maintenance of the dam until the end of 2024, according to data from the government procurement portal. The contract amount is 1.6 million rubles. The application of this enterprise was the only one when choosing a supplier.
This amount turned out to be more than a year earlier (then 1.5 million rubles were allocated for these purposes), but significantly less than in 2020 and in previous years – then about 2.6-2.7 million were spent on operating the dam in year, follows from the information on the government procurement website.
In January 2024, Rostechnadzor sent a letter to the Orsk administration asking for clarification on how work was being done to prepare for the flood. To which, on March 12, officials reported that “visual observations of hydraulic structures are carried out during the flood period.” The supervisory authority was not satisfied with the response and a second letter was sent to the administration on April 2 – literally a few days before the breakthrough.
In it, officials were required to provide specific data on the condition of the dam on the eve of the flood. The administration was supposed to respond to this demand by April 8, but on April 5 it turned out that it was too late to respond. Rostechnadzor created a commission to technically investigate the causes of the accident.
The dam, according to the design documentation, is designed for a water level in the Ural River of 5.5 m. Currently, this figure is at around 9.6 m. Such a flood situation happens once every hundred years, experts emphasize.
Sergei Komarov, director of the contractor company involved in the construction of the dam in 2011-2013, told Izvestia that he “built the dam 12 years ago” and refused to comment on the situation with the breakthrough.
Sudden rise
On April 6, the governor of the Orenburg region, Denis Pasler, held a meeting of the emergency commission in Orsk. He instructed officials to ensure the evacuation of people to temporary accommodation centers or to relatives. All TAPs, the head of the region noted, must be equipped with everything necessary for living. It was also decided to double payments to flood victims.
On behalf of the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Alexander Kurenkov, an additional echelon of rescuers flew to the Orenburg region. On April 6, an Il-76 with 175 specialists from the Centrospas detachment, as well as cadets and officers of the Ural Institute of the State Fire Service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, arrived in Orsk. Rescuers will strengthen their teams in the most difficult areas. They brought with them watercraft, all-terrain vehicles, special equipment, wetsuits, and life jackets.
According to the latest data, at the site of liquidation of the consequences of the flood Orsk employs 540 people, 146 pieces of equipment, including all-terrain vehicles, more than 70 watercraft and 13 unmanned vehicles for monitoring the situation.
This year, the flood itself “checks” hydraulic structures for design errors, Doctor of Technical Sciences, hydrologist Mikhail Bolgov told Izvestia.
“During the years when there were no high waters here, errors probably accumulated,” says the expert. – This is the “natural way” check.
So far, there are no suspects in the criminal case initiated on the fact of the dam break, but over time, the general director and chief engineer of the broken dam, as well as representatives of the owner, may be brought to justice. believes lawyer Igor Bushmanov.
— In addition, employees of regulatory and supervisory authorities may be charged under the article of negligence“, the lawyer added.
In his opinion, the emergency with a dam break could have occurred due to improper performance of official duties by interested persons and departments. And “only the most corrosive reaction of the prosecutor’s office and the investigation in relation to the entire circle of those involved” will help prevent the recurrence of such tragedies, the expert concluded.
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