Received a very nice request from a 12-year-old lady from Stochholm, Sweden.

She wrote:

Hi!.. I am 12 years old. I am working on a school project about Yakutsk and Yakutia. There are some things I want to ask about. – What type of clothes do you use during wintertime? -What abot the wildlife in Yakutia, what type of animals live there? – Children who don’t live close to their school, how do they get to school during the coldest periods?

This is so cool! I was extremely glad to hear kids’ interest in Yakutia.

Here are my answers:

- What type of clothes do you use during wintertime?

A year ago I wrote a big post about what to wear in the wintertime. Please, check it here http://askyakutia.com/2010/01/clothes-yakutiasiberia-winter/

-What abot the wildlife in Yakutia, what type of animals live there?

Apart from Siberian tigers, we have all other animals living in Siberia.

They are reindeer, long-horned goats, ibex, musk deer, polar bears, seal, walrus, many fish species, wolves, ermine, several large birds of prey, gyrfalcons, red-breasted geese, ducks, mice, rabbits, lemmings, several other burrowing small rodents, lynx, and arctic foxes

- Children who don’t live close to their school, how do they get to school during the coldest periods?

In the city of Yakutsk we try to use a taxi or cars to give kids rides to school.

In villages, some children, whose families (mostly) don’t have vehicles, are forced to walk to school themselves, even if schools are located in a near village a few km away.

In the photo: Kids in Oymyakon village school. They were waiting for their parents to come on vehicles.

A never-frozen brook in the Verkhoyansk Range, East Yakutia, Siberia

One day I received two inquiries regarding drinking water in Yakutsk. The first one arrived from India saying, “What about your food habits (including drinking water)during winter?” The second request was asked by an American teacher, who was writing a paper on the use of drinking water in the Siberian city of Yakutsk. The latter contained more questions that the first one had.

Below see questions and my answers.

Q: I was wondering where you get your drinking water in Yakutsk, and if you have any pollution. Also, do you guys have ground water? I am asking this because my topic for Science is Yakutsk!

A: Well, residents of Yakutsk City prefer to drink boiled filtered water. It is not because of pollution. The reason is that filters are not used in the city’s water supply systems. Villagers use water from rivers. In the winter, they melt ice cubes from rivers’ ice cover.

Ground waters are not used, permafrost is pretty deep here. A couple of centuries ago, one merchant, Fyodor Shergin, tried to dig the well and get to ground water, but eventually his well became the world’s deepest ice vertical tunnel. It’s known as Shergin’s Shaft now.

More info about that attempt you might find in the “Descending into the world’s deepest shaft in the permafrost zone” post. Besides, ground waters are not demanded, as there are many rivers and lakes around.

That’s all what I can say for now. It’s a pretty short info, as I am not a scientist and unable to provide more profound facts for your writing work. You’d better come to Yakutsk and collaborate with republic colleagues. Think, this is more efficient way to obtain unique and highly interesting information.

Q: How much water the average person uses, and if Yakutsk has any water issues?

A: It is hard to say how much water city residents consume. Let’s take my family (2 adults and 2 little kids) as an example. We order two big bottles of drinking water (each 25 litres) and that’s enough for 5 days only. It comes we use 10 litres daily. This water we drink and use for cooking.

Have no idea how much other families consume. Certainly, it will depend on their purposes of such water use. Some uses DIY-filtered waters for cooking and drinking, a few would prefer to take waters right from faucets. Some loves drinking waters a lot…

But I think 10 litres might be considered as the average.

No big problems with water supply. Look at the map and you will see that there are a lot of rivers in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and there are many private companies that are ready to supply waters from them. Some businessmen start even thinking over exporting still water to China, but it is more like an idea to exercise on.

Dwellers of Yakutsk complain mainly about the absence of good filtering equipments used in the city water supply system.

So happy that it became possible to help Russia Today TV Channel with meeting a shaman in Yakutia. How did it happen?

A few weeks before the New Year celebration, a Russia Today producer called me and asked how to meet a shaman in Yakutia, Siberia/Russia. I started to explain and tell exactly what I wrote in the previous post “How to meet shamans in Yakutia?“. Said that it was a bit hard task, if they wanted to make a story with a real one. Not so many of them left in the region… and all of them prefer to live at remote places, far from people.

They would need to travel to a shaman’s place in taiga. The nearest one, Fedot P. Ivanov, is located near the village of Vilyuisk, minimum 5 hours by a car from Yakutsk. Find him and ask him for letting them to do the interview with him, and it’s not guaranteed that he would express his wish to show up on TV, as he is tired of journalists’ attention and consider them pretty annoying.

Recommended to get in touch with Galina E. Shadrina (see her contact), who are considered as shamans’ assistant and eye in mordern civilization. Russia Today appeared to be really lucky. Galina managed to invite one of shamans to Yakutsk. It was Leonid Savin, who is based in the village of Zhigansk, North Yakutia. His flight from Zhigansk to Yakutsk was possible to one good person, who agreed to pay his flight.

Russia Today made a story. Watch the video above. Currently, Leonid Savin is stuck in Yakutsk. He is doing clarification rituals at people’s requests and this way he is trying to earn money for getting back to Zhigansk. Don’t know, if he would agree to come the next time for another TV crew… but who knows :)

Meanwhile, read RussiaToday’s story ofYakutian shamans. I like it much.

My mission is to help in troublesome times – Yakutian shaman

The belief in the power of the shaman is very much a part of the Yakutian way of life. Although there are few shamans left, they are still very important to people in the region.

From healing and protection, to marriages and good harvest – in ancient times shamans were in charge of almost all aspects of life. In the contemporary world they try to adapt to modern times while keeping old traditions alive.

“Our ancestors always had very powerful shamans around – the latter protected them, gave them blessings and ensured security and safety in all circumstances – in everyday life, at a hunt, on a journey, and at war,” says Galina Shchadrina, shaman researcher.

Shamans claim to act as intermediaries between the spiritual and earthly worlds, relying heavily on nature to get their message across. When Russian Orthodox Christianity moved eastward and later with the Soviet Union, shamanism was banned and those that practiced it were persecuted. Now there are only three recognized shamans living in all of Yakutia, in Russia’s Far East.

A shaman sees his role as helping people find faith in the fact that their wishes will be fulfilled and their family relations and conflicts at work will be fixed, explains shaman Leonid Savin.

“When a person has this faith, he can do anything. I live in a time of crisis, and my mission is to help people in this troublesome time. Every shaman has his own mission,” he said.

One of the biggest current problems for shamans is the conflict between modern technology and spiritual ways, which is especially relevant for Yakutia, where hitching posts with ancient symbols may be standing next to electricity lines.

“Real shamans live far way from big cities in small villages, because contemporary cities with computers, cars, cell phones, and the constant rush, distract from true unity with nature and the spirits,” said Savin.

Trying to make the best of it all, life is a delicate balancing act for the Yakuts, and thus they are an interesting people, believes Daria Bragina, local resident.

“When we are in trouble, we do three different things at the same time – we turn to a shaman, we pray in a church, and we make use of modern medicine,” she told RT.

This is a unique way of keeping a tradition that has been a part of Yakutia for centuries.

And, as a Yakutian blessing says, “may the Sun protect what it created, may the warmth of the fire in your name protect you and may your three spirits be united – the spirit of the womb, the spirit of air and the spirit of the earth.”

May the Sun protect you, dear readers!

Received a request from Jenanne, a Scotland University of Aberdeen PhD Student. Her major is Social Anthropology, so all her questions sounded accordingly. Mainly she wondered how popular the Sakha (Yakut) language was on the Internet. I said I had a friend of mine, who’s hobby was to write in his native language everything and everywhere in every corner of the worldwide net.

The person I recommended to torture with those questions was Halan (that’s how he prefers to call himself online), who stands behind Sakha Wikipedia. I reforwarded Jenanne’s questions to him. He answered and then Jenanne (currently she studies Russian, but speaks Ukrainian pretty good, cause her mother is originated from Ukraine) translated his text into English. Find Halan’s replies further:

1. Is Sakha your native language? What other languages do you speak?
Yes, my parents speak this language, my grandparents spoke it and I myself didn’t know another language until entering school. Now I speak Russian almost as a native speaker. I studied English later, but this was a requirement of a training program in school and university – that is, the approach to the study was rather formal, therefore unfortunately I don’t speak it for practical purposes. I can read texts on simple themes, and also medical texts with a dictionary.

2. What is your profession?
First – an automobile driver, secondly a doctor – I have a PhD in epidemiology, and third – a manager. At the present time, I manage a small business delivering medicines and medical services.

3. How did you get involved with working on the Sakha Wikipedia? About how many people are collaborating on the Sakha Wikipedia?
I have children growing up, who in my opinion should be proud of belonging to the Sakha people and of their native language. But to be proud of a language with limited possibilities is difficult. Therefore I want that my rich and ancient Sakha language to become widely used in all spheres of human activity. Wikipedia can help a language become universal. From May 2008, when a section in Sakha opened, I became its bureaucrat (administrator). Now the Sakha Wikipedia has about 6000 articles. By this indicator we are in 4th place in Russia (after the sections in Russian, Chuvash, and Yiddish). For reference, in the country there are more than 100 languages that do not have their own national education or formation outside of Russia.

There are no specialized statistics about how many people write or use Wikipedia in our language. But I can say that there are from about 10 people actively writing to about 50 people who write from time to time.

4. Are you involved in any other Sakha language websites, or any other activities to promote the language?
Yes, I am trying to socialize on Sakha forums in Sakha. In the last three years I am actively publishing articles in the press, keeping special blogs in the Sakha language, and entering in studies and public forums in support of native language. I am thechairman of the social/public organization Tas Sakhalar, the task of which is to support connections with Sakha living outside the boundaries of Yakutia.

5. In your opinion, why is it important to promote and spread the usage of the Sakha language on the Internet?
The widening/broadening of the representation of language on the Internet and in general of informational-communication technologies is one of the most important conditions of the retention and development of a language, and of transmission of cultural information to the future generations.

6. What do you think are the most popular websites for people in the Sakha Republic? (e.g. which news sites, which networking sites – Facebook, MySpace, YouTube…)
I don’t completely understand. If you are speaking about the most popular sites of Yakutians, then they are very different and it is unlikely one can gather such statistics. If you are talking about languages, then it is my personal feeling that the most popular ones are usually those sites in Russian.

7. On which Internet sites do you see people using the Sakha language the most?
Recently I made a rather superficial analysis, not pretending in truth in the last instance. It is such that of 34 sites getting into my field of vision (excluding my own blogs) only 15 are completely done in the Sakha language or have a full Sakha version at the same level as other language versions. Still 11 rather often place Sakha texts alongside foreign languages. 8 are done in Russian, but have materials facilitating contact in Sakha (dictionaries, ethnic music, etc).

8. Are there any internet sites that are only in Sakha (besides the Wikipedia) and not Russian, English or any other language?
I answered above.

9. Do younger or older people tend to use the Sakha language more on the Internet? (What age are the people who use Sakha the most on the Internet?)
Specialist research hasn’t been conducted, and this still awaits our own researchers. I think that more middle-ageed representatives study language on the Internet, since the older generation in general badly controls technologies, and youth socialize more in two languages at the same time or even in a mixed language.

10. Do you see more Sakha speakers using English on the Internet, or is using Russian still more popular?
There is a definite tendency. In the language 20 a whole generation of Sakha appeared, controlling well one or two foreign languages (English, German, and French). The Russian language is controlled on a very good level at a practical manner by all youth and all city-dwellers, and at a passable level by all adult inhabitants of the Republic.

11. I found on the Orto Doidu website that there was a list of words in Sakha for computer terminology: http://doydu.sakhaopenworld.org/01tylgt.php. Do you know who worked together to create these? Are you seeing these words used a lot on the Internet, or do you think it is more common to use the Russian or English equivalents?

Yes, this little dictionary was made by my good acquaintance Bert Jikty (Yakov Alexandrov), a man having engineering training, presently a patriot of the nation. The terms Bert Jikty suggests are usually used on Sakha sites, for example, for the translation of the Wiki interface, I based it precisely on this dictionary. Computer terms such as those worldwide, penetrate into Russia from English-speaking countries. Here they at first are adapted to the Russian language, and then penetrate into other languages of the Russian Federation. At the present time, in Russia there appears to be many people speaking the English language no worse than Russian, and therefore people have appeared who consider it correct to borrow terms directly from English avoiding the Russian equivalents.

12. Do you notice many people ‘mixing’ languages when they communicate on the internet? Like speaking Sakha, and using Russian or English words too in their speech?
I don’t completely understand the question. Among Sakha youth it’s always been fashionable to insert (use) some Russian words in one’s sentences. In recent times the use of English expressions has become fashionable. Well, the Internet is a mirror of society, therefore there as well such things are unavoidable.

This is a good question asked by a friend of mine from Fairbanks, Alaska. He is a big fan of photography and off-roading. His Flickr nick is rpiereck. Wonderful pictures he has. So… Frankly saying, it was me who first asked him “How do you prepare your Jeep for the winter in Alaska?” In his reply he gave me the detailed description, afterwards he returned my question back :)

The above picture was taken in Yakutsk on Dec. 11, 2008, when it was much below -50C.

Further, please, find info on how cars are prepared in the world’s cold regions, Alaska and the coolest Siberian region, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

That’s how cold it might be in Alaska. -62F / -54C. Fairbanks, Alaska. Jan. 3, 2009. Photo by RPiereck.

RPiereck’s reply on how he gets his car ready in Alaska:

“Well, first the tires are winter tires. On the engine I put a engine block heater, and an oil pan heater. The automatic transmission gets an oil pan heater too. The battery has a warming blanket. All of those need to be plugged into the electrical socket, so that increases our energy consumption. I put it on a timer so it is not using electricity … Read Moreall the time, it goes on every three hours for about an hour. I also have some seat heating pads that I bought on the internet and are the best thing ever!”

“Oh yeah, I forgot I changed all my oils to synthetic too: engine, transmission, transfer case, front and rear differential, power steering and brakes too. How do you prepare your car for the winter in Yakutia?”

My modest answer about Yakutsk drivers’ car winter preparation:

“Heh. Actually, I am not a pro driver. I have some idea only :( I know it is necessary to attach a warm layer to the bottom of the car. A sort of a metallic substrate with woolen fabric. Local drivers also put a woolen cover on the hood and another one on the engine, electrics and all other stuff under the hood. They double-glaze as well, especially the windshield. This measure prevents glasses from being frozen. A heating system is also a must. Locals do almost the same actions with oil things, use winter tires, and some prefers the Arctic diesel, when it gets extremely cold.”

Btw, a year ago in the post “From Yakutsk to Verkhoyansk with a 4WD car” I wrote also “For keeping warm, it is important to have double windows in front and around, to install a metal protection shield under the bottom of engine area and tarpaulin covered the rest bottom of the car. It is obligatory to keep the engine running all the time when the car is outside in the winter period. The engine might be switched off only, when the vehicle is inside a heated garage. If the engine stopped, the accumulator will be frozen in a moment. In such cases, if no garages around, the accumulator is recommened to be warmed over bonfire or by a torch, and the metal protection shield under the engine needs to be heated up as well.”

Well, that’s all I can say by now. I need to ask my friends, off-roading fans for more detailed information. Wish to take pictures of all car winter preparation moments.

So, keep tuned.

“I am planning on moving to Yakutsk and need information on housing, cost of living and the average yearly salary?” asked a foreigner.

One-bedroom apartment rent = 13000-25000 rubles per month.
Depends on location, a type of a house, available house equipments, and landlord’s attitude to money.

Living cost = 1000 rubles per day will be enough.
However, it is possible to spend 300-500 rubles a day.

Salary = 15000-25000 rubles per month.
If you’ll be lucky, you may get a job with 30000-45000 rubles per month. As you know, skills and knowledge and communication ability do matter much here.

I am giving rates in rubles.
Currency rates change daily drastically.

Another portion of questions regarding Oymyakon, the Pole of Cold, I received from a Hungarian journalist, who was also wondering how people could live in such extreme weather conditions.

First are there outside any animals at such a cold temperature?
If you mean domestic animals, in Oymyakon some keep watchdogs outside so to protect the private territory. In this case dogs stay in warm kennels with felt layers.
If farm animals like cattles and poultries, they are kept in a special barns.
If wild, hunters say they may meet elks, deer, raindeer, hares. Bears, as you know, sleep in the winter.

Second what does it happen if somebody can’t keep his/her house warm? Does the house totally ‘destroyed’ by the radical cold?
In such cases, houses will be totally frozen, impossible to live in. So it is vital to keep houses warm.

How many people do freeze to death in an average year?
No official stats available. However, the misfortune happens and usually to travellers stuck on the way due to broken cars or lost in forest or lose consciousness for health and other reasons. Very often people get their extremities frostbitten, if they spend much time (a few hours) outside and frozen, as result they may have parts of their body amputated. This may occure, for instance, if a person had heart attack in a lonely place and fell.

And how many tourists or non-inhabitants?
A dozen of tourists per month, perhaps.

What kind of materials do you use for pipelines (water, heating etc.)?
A few hours cast-iron pipelines were vastly used. Now plastic prevails. Yet in village houses most people do not use water pipelines. They prefer to keep water in tanks and take liquid by a bucket. Instead of taps they have wash-hand-stands. Oymyakon residents use furnace heating mostly. If they’ve got enough money, they can afford gas heating systems with boilers.

How can you travel on long distances? Are the roads usable for cars?
Locals prefer to travel by cars. Cheap, you know. Round trip by plane may costs 400-500 USD depending on distance.

What can you do if the car isn’t working anymore and you stick in the middle of Siberia?
Leave the car and walk for help. Otherwise one may be frozen to death. Sometimes it happens.

Are there functioning mobil phone service?
Only in cities and the administrative centers of republic’s regions.

UPDATE:

Above-listed answers and other AskYakutia’s information were successfully used in Zoltan Molnar’s story published at the Hungarian news portal Origo.hu on January 14, 2009.

We, I and other Yakutians, are often asked about Oymyakon. The last time we forwarded received questions to a local resident. His name is Nikolay N. Krivoshapkin, 50-year-old driver, who was born, grew up and live the whole life in Oymyakon. Nikolay tried to describe what life in the coldest place on Earth looks like. He says:

“In winter the average temperature is −51°С, in summer +27°С. But that’s average. In December and January temperature usually do not drop below −55°С −57°С. The lowest temperature I’ve ever experienced in my life was −67.7°С. I wasn’t surprised, because Oymyakon is considered to be the Pole of Cold, the coldest place in the northern hemisphere with the lowest degrees, -71,2°С, registered.”

What is the style of life?
“Don’t know how even to explain. To me, it is never-ending struggle with myself and nature. In short summer period, we need to stockpile hay for caws, firewood for heating houses. Caws spend the whole winter staying in cow-houses – special barns of small size, daily we have to carry hay and water to the cow-houses, and also clean these houses three times a day. In winter we need to chop firewood, stoke the stove. We use stove heating. Household chores we need to combine with the main job. All the housework we do manually. Our life is the constant work. We are running round like a squirrel in a cage.”

“In central, western and eastern parts of Yakutia, climate is much softer than here. There winter may have -40°С-45°С only and summer may last all three months and have +30°С +35°С. There any crops, potatoes, cabbages, tomatoes and other kinds of vegetables may grow, and lands are flatter. People living there have better conditions. That’s why they have many cattle and horses breed. That’s the reason why most Yakuts are based there, not here. Small indigenous nations, Evens and Evenks, prefer to live in remote northern area; they herd reindeer and hunt for living.”

Houses, struggle with cold, clothes
“We construct all our private houses out of wood, namely larch logs. Larch can keep temperature pretty good, thanks to it, in winter it is warm inside, in summer fresh. We made stoves out of bricks, stock them with firewood. That’s the way we keep houses protected from cold. In contrast to private houses, administrative buildings – school, kindergarten, hospital, offices, sports buildings, culture center (dom kultury, in Russian), are stone and heated by boilers.”

“We wear fur coats, fur hats and fur boots. Winter boots and coats are made of reindeer skin, and hats out of foxes and Arctic foxes. Besides, we put on several sweaters, warm underwear, and wool foot wrap rags. Without these clothes we couldn’t stand cold, especially when we spend the whole workday outdoors. With temperature as low as –50°С and without all mentioned protection layers, a man can get chilblain (thermal burn) just in 30 minutes and be frozen to death in one hour.”

“Foreign tourists often visit our village. All their high-technological parkas, sweaters, socks and boots cannot resist extreme cold. Even Japanese’s coats with electric warmers couldn’t keep warmth. When it was below –50°С, their outer clothing got frozen and numb, and when they got inside warm houses, the outfit started cracking and turned out to be useless.”

When we wake up
“It depends on where a certain person works. School opens door at 8.30 am, hospital and administrative offices at 9.00 am. Caws owners get up very early; they need to give cattle water and hay, milk them and clean barns; everything described must be done before breakfast and going work…”

To be continued

Last December Shaun Walker, The Independent’s Moscow-based correspondent, wrote a great feature story about Yakutsk. He depicted how locals managed to live in the city that reminded more as a Siberian freezer. I gave him some support while he was in Yakutsk. Then he sent me his photographs attached to the mentioned story and gave me permission to post them on my weblog.

Here we are. That’s how Yakutsk looks like in December by Shaun Walker.

PROFILE: Evgenia I. Mikhailova, President of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)

Biography

Born on October 9, 1949. In the village of Suntar, Yakutia ASSR.

1972. Graduated from the Physical & Mathematical Department of Yakutsk State University.
1972 – 1983. Worked as a mathematics teacher in Borogonsky School in the Bulunsky region, School #13 in Yakutsk, and Megin-Aldansky Elementary School in the Tomponsky region.
1983. Responsible for pedagogical work in Elementary School #20 in Yakutsk.
1983 – 1988. Controller, then head of Yaroslavsky Regional Education Department in Yakutsk.
1988 – 1996. Worked as deputy head, then head of Yakutsk City Education Administration, Republic’s Deputy Minister of Education.
1996 – 1997. 1st Deputy Minister of Education of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).
1997 – 2002. Minister of Education of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).
Feb. 7, 2002. Appointed Acting Vice-Premier of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) by the Decree of President of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).
2003 – 2007. Vice-Premier of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).
March 15, 2007. Approved for the post of Vice-President of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) by republic parliament’s resolution.

Regalia
- Candidate of Psychological Science, 1996.
- Doctor of Pedagogical Science, 2000.
- Member of Petrovsky Academy of Science

Awards & Titles
- Honored worker of education, 1990.
- Honored teacher of the Russian Federation, 2000
- Honorary citizen of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), 2001.
- The Medal “Defender of Free Russia”, 1993.
- Diploma of the Ministry of Education of the USSR, 1983 г.,
- Diploma of President of the Russian Federation, 1994.

Ecologists! They sent me a release and a few info to post. Further, please, find them.

BIG INTERESTS AND MONEYS…THE RIGHT OF PEOPLE AND SAFETY ISSUES

The Lena river is not just a blue line on the map of Russia. And the “East Siberia – Pacific Ocean” Oil Pipeline (ESPO) crossing of the river is not just another hydro-technical construction on one of the biggest Siberian rivers.

But the ESPO underwater crossing of the river Lena is nothing but an oil “bomb”. We call it this way, because the effect of oil spills on this river – one of the biggest and clearest rivers in the world, which nourishes the area compared to the size of the European Union – can be as destructive as bomb effect. Such situation is a result of non-responsible and quick profit oriented attitude of giant corporation, Transneft’. The company’s managers rely on speedy schedule and economy issues when weighing the alternatives – to spend up to 40 % more money on the project or to save the river they have probably not even seen with their own eyes.

That is why it is now the public initiatives of the republic are striving to save the Lena river from oil spills in future. Why would such disasters happen?

The method of the ESPO oil pipeline crossing had been changed without open public discussion: neither the government nor the people of the republic were informed of the Transneft’s decision to change from the micro-tunnel to the trench method, which then was approved by the state ecological expertise.

According to the various regional scientific data, the chosen place for the pipeline to cross the river have many dangerous factors, which can lead to oil spills in future if the pipeline will be done in trench. These are: possible ice jams, some big stones from inflowing river Olyokma; washing of soil and salt cavities under the pipes, etc.

Deformation of the pipes in the trench can cause oil spill disaster:
- according to the projected calculations, the massive oil spill will elapse about 83333, 3 cu. feet of oil into the river;
- counting the average width of the river, 0,97 miles, this amount of oil will make about 500 miles oil front and the polluted oiled water will reach Yakutsk, the capital town, in 4 days in summer;
- the company-customer of the project Transneft didn’t imply any alternative water supply for the settlements downstream in case of such oil spills;
- owing to the high toxic oil components such oil spill will do much harm to the fish, birds and to all living creatures inhabiting the bottom, the water and the banks. And the river is the major source of drinkable water and fish supply for numerous indigenous settlements downstream.

That’s why the leading scientists, ecologists from Yakutia and Russian Far East are addressing the government of Russia in urge to switch the method of river crossing for the tunnel.

Moreover, the construction of the pipeline is being done with abundant violations of technical and juridical regulations. Thus, the controlling work by the Ministry for nature protection and Technical Survey Department of the Sakha republic in the year of 2007-08 has found 97 violations of regulatory technical inscriptions and 86 violations of the nature protection laws.

The Save the River Lena Action is initiated by the Civic Coalition “Our homeland – Yakutia”, which then formed the Organizing Committee of the Action and Public Council of the Action. The Save the River Lena Action is out of the politics and commercial PR, this is a civic action.

The Action will be on till the government of Russia and the company-customer Transneft’ will reconsider the ESPO oil pipeline major crossing (at least, the additional sub-crossing) for tunneling. The Action is a set of informative, educational and agitation activities, which are held with various frequency and with different people involved. Later on, this Action will also be a part of public ecological monitoring of the Lena river.

The major activity within the Action is collecting the voices of all people who wish to give their voice to support our petition for the government of Russia to change the method of the river crossing from trench to tunnel.

Not long ago the Organizing Committee sent letters to the Presidents of Russia and Yakutia, asking them to take into account the voices of some 14 thousand people who signed the petition to change the ESPO oil pipeline river crossing for tunneling. But no answer yet from Moscow. And the last session of Yakutia’s government on August 22 didn’t show real consideration of the proposed public suggestion to make the river crossing safer.

Will the authorities and government of Russia and the Sakha republic not remain in history as those people who let “the oil bomb” kill the mighty river owing to their ill-thought actions and non-sustainable policies?

The organizers of the Action are still positive in their will to turn the government into the balance between mere economy and sustainable development of such industrial projects.

—————-

THE EAST SIBERIA – PACIFIC OCEAN OIL PIPELINE PROJECT (ESPO)

The capacity of the pipeline: up to 80 mln tons of oil per year.
The ESPO construction stages: the first stage comprises: Tayshet (Irkutsjaya oblast) – Skovorodino (Amurskaya oblast). The overall capacity of the first stage is up to 30 ml tons of oil per year.

The extension of the ESPO in the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic: the extension goes from Ust-Kut up along the north-eastern left bank of the Lena river to the Talakan oil field (1 part of the extension); then it turns from the town of Lensk to the east and comes to the town of Olyokminsk where it crosses the Lena river and reaches the town of Aldan (3 part); from there it drops down south to the town of Neryungry and exits the territory of republic in the village of Tynda, Amurskaya oblast (2 part).
The length of the first stage of the project is about 1200 miles, and more than 800 miles out of that goes in the territory of the Sakha republic. As various specialists state, the construction of the new route of the project will face many difficulties of various origin: technical ordeals due to harsh climate, complex geology and relief (permafrost and multiple kinds of soils).

The engineering plans for the first stage of the project include construction of about 300-400 new transportation routes.

Besides the linear parts (the buried pipes) the projected construction includes 7 oil-pumping stations, numerous electricity and communication services, autonomous diesel power station, the unified controlling system and sea oil filling terminal in the Primorsky krai on the Pacific coast.
The cost of the first stage is about 11 mln USD.

The construction of the ESPO oil pipeline system is funded by open joint-stock oil company Transneft with its own resources and loans (Sberbank loan is 146 mlrd rubles, and release of debt securities (total sum is $500 mln and 700 mln euro).

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THE LENA RIVER CROSSING OF THE ESPO OIL PIPELINE

The ESPO oil pipeline project has about 270 crossing of various water streams, including the major water route, the Lena river. The underwater crossing is projected to be built near Solyanka village, not far downstream from Olyokminsk town.

The method of the crossing had been changed without open public discussion: neither the government nor the people of the republic were informed of the Transneft’s decision to change from the micro-tunnel to the trench method, which then was approved by the state ecological expertise.

Together with the approved method of crossing (the trench), the chosen place for the pipeline to cross the river adds risks for the possible oil spills in future as there are the following dangerous factors – high possibility of earthquakes in the area of crossing; ice jams at the spring break-up period (up to 40 feet high and 44 miles long ; the existence of geological shatters under the Oyokma and Lena rivers’ beds; the Olyokma river can drag up big stones to the trench crossing place; and also the washing of soil and salt under the buried pipes, which may cause their deformation, and thus, oil spills.

Special construction techniques

Open Cut River and Stream Crossings (open trench method)

This crossing method involves excavating a trench across the bottom of the river or stream to be crossed with the pipeline. Depending on the depth of the water, the construction equipment may have to be placed on barges or other floating platforms to excavate the pipe trench. If the water is shallow enough, the contractor can divert the water flow with dams and flume pipe to allow backhoes, working from the banks or the streambed, to dig the trench.

The top of the pipe must be 3,3 ft below the non-washable bottom level. The duration of work for this kind of river crossing systems is 10 years.

Utility Tunneling and Carrier Pipe

This construction method involves excavating the ground at the leading edge of a shield or boring machine and erecting a lining system from within the excavated space. The minimum size is approximately 48 inches in diameter, which is the size required to allow personnel access to erect a liner from inside the opening. The lined tunnel acts as a host for the installation of the carrier pipe system which is grouted in place.

The top of the pipe must be 16,6 ft below the non-washable bottom level. The duration of work for this kind of river crossing systems is 100 years.

Regret to say, “Certainly, not“. Yakutia may seem to be the area of the Sakha people only, but that’s illusion. The republic is multinational. More than 100 nations live in the region. That’s not my point of view. That’s life true.

Besides, people here think of survival in hard climatic conditions. No political ambitions in terms of separatism. We, dwellers of Yakutia, cannot live without Russia. Thanks to Russia, we stay aswim.

The only policy is how to get ready for winter and pass the coldest season without serious accidents. By the way, in one month we’ll see the first snowing, if it won’t take place in the late September.

Ordinary people condemn separatists and racists. We consider them as populists and not far-seeing persons. You know, things (the word you may replace) happen, as if they occur in London or New York, Beijing or Capetown.

Anonymous, of Iceland, wrote “I was wondering what attitude Yakutians had towards homosexuality. I know what the Russians think but often minorities tend to differ in such matter.”

Answer:

To be honest, majority tends to make fun of such people, doesn’t undestand them.