Zabaykalsky Schoolchildren Face Cold Gym; Authorities Blame Bad Coal
Parents of students at School No. 2 in Mogoytuy (Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia) complained to Chita.Ru on January 27 that the sports hall is so cold that children begin to catch colds and fall ill after physical education classes. The district administration explained this as problems with the resource supplier«s coal.
«The school gym is cold. Children exercise in this gym and then become seriously ill from hypothermia and acute respiratory viral infections. The school principal is aware of the problem but does not address the issue of insulating the school. The district authorities also cannot solve the problem,» one of the parents said.
School principal Bato Damdinzhapov told a Chita.Ru correspondent that he has been on sick leave for the second month due to surgery, so he is unaware of what is happening in the educational institution.
District administration head Bolot Namzhilov said that one of the reasons is poor-quality coal that the resource supply organization uses — it does not provide the required heating temperature.
«At a normative outdoor temperature of -19°C (-2°F), the return flow should be 56°C (133°F). But there they barely manage to raise it to 52°C (126°F). When asked why they aren«t providing the necessary volume of high-calorie coal, they say: »We have no money.« Their debts are quite large for the fuel already provided earlier, and they cannot purchase expensive, good-quality coal,» Namzhilov said.
According to him, the temperature in the school gym is 14°C (57°F), which is below the lower norm of 16°C (61°F), meaning it does not meet the necessary parameters. In connection with this, the district administration demanded that the resource supplier still ensure the necessary heat supply.
«The fact is that we indeed have abnormal weather — at night it«s minus 40°C (-40°F). Naturally, the building itself is old. Generally, for the second school, we have prepared design and estimate documentation (PSD); it is on the list for implementation for major repairs. But so far, it hasn»t worked out. Not only this school. In our district, there are several schools for which PSD is ready, for which we initially knew that there would be problems, because since the nineties, the facilities have been used without major repairs. Both the heating systems, and the sewerage, and the external facade condition. There are also wooden windows. The sub-zero temperatures have revealed all these weak points. But there is the issue of funding,» the district head added.
In mid-January, it became known about heating problems at the Mogoytuy kindergarten «Buratino». Initially, it was impossible to get a response from the district administration and the Aginsky Buryat Okrug (ABO), but later the head of ABO Ananda Dondokov told a Chita.Ru correspondent that the reason for the heating problems is the dilapidation of the building and poor-quality coal.
