Water found a hole: why flooded a city in the Chelyabinsk region
In the Chelyabinsk region, the flood came earlier than usual, but it hit the city of Asha the hardest: the Sim River overflowed its banks, easily overcame the barrier in the form of a dam and flooded the settlement. Several years ago, more than 130 million rubles were spent on the protective structure, but it could not contain the flow of water. There is an explanation for this — the forensic examination, which was conducted in 2024, showed serious shortcomings in the construction of the dam. For more information, see the Izvestia article.
The scale of the flooding in Asha
In mid—March, two weeks earlier than usual, ice began to break on the Sim River, a traffic jam formed, and water poured into the city of Asha. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Chelyabinsk region, on the morning of March 18, 31 household plots were flooded, and in the middle of the day on March 19, 95 private residential buildings, 173 garden houses and 329 household plots were already flooded.
Meanwhile, local authorities reported on Tuesday afternoon: "The flood water level in the Ashinsky urban settlement continues to decrease." "Continues to decline where?!" — "At a meeting!" — the outraged residents joked in the comments.
Their words were confirmed by news from the Chelyabinsk Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, which in the middle of the day on Tuesday quoted a local resident thanking the rescuers. "The water was rising rapidly, literally before our eyes. I managed to climb the stairs to the roof of the house and called 112, and the phone went dead. After a while, two rescuers arrived by boat. Their names were Anton (Rastegaev) and Konstantin (Chernyshov). They helped me down from the roof and evacuated me to a safe place."
Blowing up the ice in Asha
The next day, the Ministry of Emergency Situations told about the rescue of an elderly couple — they did not leave their house on Tuesday, but by evening the first floor of the building was flooded. The electricity went out, and it was already impossible to light the stove. To evacuate the pensioners, rescuers took them up a steep mountain because the water cut off other opportunities.
"The situation is not improving," Larisa, a local resident, told Izvestia on Tuesday. — The ice is not blown up, so the water goes through the gardens in the area of the third school to the "frog house", as one of the private sectors is called, and onto Tolstoy Street.
She is sure that the authorities did not cope with the flood because they did not carry out blasting operations on the river on time.
The explosions on the river were nevertheless staged on Wednesday morning. However, Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Chelyabinsk region Alexander Reshetnikov (United Russia) He believes that there would have been no need for this at all if the protective dam had worked as it should.
How the dam was built in Asha
The last major flood in Asha was in June 2002, but the problem with flooding during the spring floods and heavy rains has always been acute, Alexander Reshetnikov, himself a native of Asha and a former mayor of the city, told Izvestia.
In 2021-2022, 130 million rubles were allocated from the budget of the Chelyabinsk Region for the renovation of the protective dam — the data is taken from the unified information system in the field of procurement. At the first stage, 35 million rubles were spent on the overhaul of the protective dam by a company from the Sverdlovsk region, Technostroikomplekt LLC. The second contract was signed in April 2022, and was called "improvement of the Ashinsky Meridian Public territory." Initially, the planned amount was 99.6 million rubles, after completion of the work it increased to 109 million. This work was performed by LLC Magistral, a company from the Chelyabinsk region. The Ashinsky Meridian is a walking route with a length of about 5 km along the Sim River, but the project also restored the protective dam, in particular, it was supposed to increase its crest, form an embankment of slag, etc.
— The work was carried out with numerous violations. In particular, the slag that was used to fill the dam is absolutely unsuitable for these types of work, as it lets water through," says Alexander Reshetnikov. — I sent a statement about this to the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Chelyabinsk region and the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Chelyabinsk region, and by decision of the Investigative Committee, an expert examination was ordered.
The forensic examination was conducted in 2024 by Technocom-Invest LLC. In its results (available to Izvestia) It is indicated, for example, that the actual crest mark of the protective dam under the first contract "does not meet the requirements of the design documentation and allows water to overflow through it during wave roll and wind surge." It is emphasized that this is a "critical defect", in the presence of which the structure is "functionally unsuitable for its intended use."
It was on the site, which was being repaired for 35 million rubles, that the dam overflowed, Alexander Reshetnikov said.
According to the Ashinsky Meridian, the design documentation "does not contain calculations justifying the reliability and safety of the protective dam." And the cost of actually completed work on the second project is estimated at 81.3 million rubles instead of 109 million.
Izvestia sent questions to both contractors. The Magistral company did not respond at the time of publication of the material. Technostroikomplekt LLC stated that "everything was done according to the project, there were no comments," and they were not familiar with the Technocom-Invest expertise and the contractor company was not involved in its implementation.
It should be noted that both companies have already appeared in the media in the context of criminal cases. Technostroikomplekt was suspected of participating in a cartel in the Sverdlovsk region. And Magistral LLC appeared in the case of Artyom Stepanov, an ex-official of the Ministry of Transport of the Chelyabinsk Region, who was accused of accepting a bribe for accepting the results of road repairs. The media reported that it was a contract worth more than 150 million rubles, which was signed in June 2022 with Magistral LLC. Let's add that since 2021, this company has received, according to the SPARK system, government contracts worth about 1.7 billion rubles.
In response to Izvestia's question about the results of the examination, the Investigative Committee for the Chelyabinsk Region reported that an inspection was currently underway at the investigative department for the city of Asha. Until it is completed, the department refused to disclose the details.
Is the dam to blame for the flooding
Alexander Reshetnikov notes that the current flood is the first since the new dam was built. And it is directly related to the fact that the structure has not fulfilled its function.
However, the government of the Chelyabinsk Region, in response to a request from Izvestia, stated that the construction of the Ashinsky Meridian pedestrian embankment "was carried out according to the project, which was repeatedly checked by the supervisory authorities of the Chelyabinsk region." We are confident in the government and in the construction of the dam under the first contract.
—The materials of the dam and the necessary structural solutions, including the scope of work, are provided for in the design and estimate documentation, which received a positive conclusion from the state expertise of the Chelyabinsk Region,— Izvestia was told.
The flood is associated with an extreme increase in the water level in the Sim River: due to intense precipitation, ice hummocks with an ice thickness of 30-40 cm formed, and the river rose so much that the water-ice mass went over the dam.
"There is no damage to the dam along its entire length," the government stressed. — The protective dam served as a deterrent, many citizens were able to drive their vehicles away from garages and households, and rescue property from farming co-ops that were in the flood zone.
Vadim Petrov, Chairman of the Public Council at Roshydromet, State Secretary of the Russian Chamber of Ecology, stressed that a properly designed and well-constructed embankment or dam should delay severe flooding if the project took into account statistically recorded maximum water pressure, hydraulic and geotechnical loads, as well as possible sudden changes in weather conditions.
"The maximum load is calculated based on historical data on river flooding, flood forecasts, rainfall intensity and analysis of extreme weather events," he told Izvestia. — But even in conditions of meeting all technological standards, modern climatic changes can create loads exceeding the structural capabilities of the facility, especially if new climatic trends are not taken into account in the calculations or if there are violations during major repairs. And data from the Russian Hydrometeorological Service indicate that heavy precipitation has increased significantly over the past 20 years.
Why can't the dams hold up?
Situations with the breakthrough of dams and protective embankments are recorded in Russia annually: Orsk in 2024, Ussuriysk in 2023, Verkhoyansk in 2022. And on Wednesday, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations warned of the threat of flooding of residential buildings in the city of Minusinsk in the Krasnoyarsk Territory due to the rupture of an earthen embankment.
Vadim Petrov notes that there is a procedure for checking such facilities, but real practice shows that control "is not always carried out with due rigor and transparency, which creates space for misuse of budget funds."
"In addition, many years of experience in the operation of protective structures, including dams and embankments, indicates that weather anomalies and climate change have already affected the stability of these facilities," the source told Izvestia. — According to departmental sources, over the past 15-20 years, the number of emergencies related to flooding has increased by 25-30%.
Pumping water from households in Asha
With reference to data from the Russian Hydrometeorological Service, he points out that in 2024 there was a record number of dangerous hydrometeorological events (OJ) — 1234, and the number of OJ that caused damage to economic sectors and the livelihoods of the population (493) turned out to be the largest in the last 16 years. It is possible to predict them: the prevention of dangerous phenomena is more than 96%. In 2024, the average justifiability of Roshydromet forecasts for the inflow of water into reservoirs for the month was 89%, for the quarter — 82%, and for the maximum level of spring flooding on rivers — 78%.
Vadim Petrov believes that these data indicate the need to review approaches to the design and operation of protective structures, as well as to change government policy in the field of emergency management. It is necessary to modernize such structures, strengthen control and legal responsibility for violations in the implementation of state projects, he believes.
The forecast of the spring flood has now been transmitted by the Russian Hydrometeorological Service to all federal and regional authorities. The most difficult hydrological situation is expected in the Tyumen region: the Ishim River is predicted to exceed the normal level by 2-4 m. The risk zone covers certain regions of the Urals, Siberia and the Far East, while low water is expected in the European part of Russia.
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