“From the tap pours “Fanta”: how the suburbs washed with rusty water

The problem, which a year ago was discussed point-by-point, acquired the scale of a communal disaster, as if two thousand people returned, and deironing stations again as if they had never happened. Rusty water flowing from the taps in Dolgoprudny, Lobna, Dmitrov, Odintsovo, Lyubertsy and the village of Belyanaya Gora ceased to be a “seasonal inconvenience”. In some homes, it lasts for months, and the color and smell of the liquid force residents to buy bottled water for all household needs.

The most difficult situation is in the village of Belyanaya Gora of the Ruz district. There, rusty water has been flowing since November 2025. The mayor of the village Svetlana described the situation with bitter irony: “I ask them: “Is the water treatment plant working?” They say yes. But in fact, none of this – from the tap pours “Fanta”. I have been walking for ten months and hanging on the thresholds.

According to her, the problem affects all eight apartment buildings in the village and three social institutions: a school, a kindergarten and a library. Residents blame the resource-supplying organization, and there, according to the elder, shift the responsibility to the management company. The way inspections are conducted is particularly indignant: “If officials come to us, it is during the day when the water has already run through and is relatively clean.” The school canteen employee says to them: “Do you come here at half-seven in the morning, when I come, that you arrived at three in the afternoon?”.

The reaction of the security forces was the only operational: The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case of negligence (Article 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), and Alexander Bastrykin put the investigation under control in the central office.

In Lobna, the problem took on an almost apocalyptic appearance. In the neighborhood of Katyushka, a local resident filmed what flows from her mixer: a thick dark brown substance, which in social networks was compared to fuel oil or spent engine oil. The video spread to local chat rooms, causing a wave of outrage. “What exactly are they now paying for the updated housing tariffs?” For water that can not be used for drinking, cooking, or bathing children? – these questions remain unanswered.

In another neighborhood of Lobny, Depot, the cause of the disruption was a failed deironing station at the water intake hub "West", owned by a private company. Repairs were delayed due to limited access to private territory, and only by the end of September commissioning work was completed. At the same time, the administration is suing for the transfer of the company's property to municipal ownership - that is, the infrastructure on which water in the taps of citizens depends, has been in limbo for years.

In Dolgoprudny, complaints about rusty water from hot taps in the house on Rocket Builders Avenue have been dragging since 2022. Then the head of the district, Vladislav Yudin, personally came to a meeting with residents and instructed the management company to “find out the source of oxidation of pipes and conduct repeated reinforced washing.” A year later, the situation repeated: at a reception in the State Housing Inspectorate, residents of the same house again talked about “rusty muddy water”, and the inspector after an on-site examination stated that “control plums of water did not visually show the presence of rust.” In 2026, the administration promised to install a water treatment station by the developer and replace the risers. This begs the question: Why did it take four years and a developer to solve the problem in one house?

In Odintsovo district, the situation is similar, but with a bureaucratic tint. In the village of Gorki-10, residents of the house built in 2019 complained of muddy water with “small grains of black color.” Analysis of the samples confirmed that the water does not meet drinking water standards. However, according to the public, the management company “does not take any measures”. The head of the district Andrey Ivanov reacted harshly: “If the incident happens again, and we do not see positive changes, then it is necessary to attract the State Housing Inspectorate and fine until the company normalizes operation.” In Odintsovo itself, complaints about rusty water were also recorded at parliamentary receptions, but were limited to “oral consultation”.

In Dmitrov, the problem is more often of an emergency nature. In August 2026, the tenants of a 12-storey house on the DZFS were left without cold water for the weekend, and the hot one, when it appeared, was rusty. In the village of Orudevo, a local water utility explained the yellowing of the water after the accident with “iron oxides” and assured that it was “safe for health” – just give it a drain. Perhaps for short-term turbidity after repair, this explanation works. But when the rusty water flows for ten months in a row, the advice to "leak a few minutes" sounds like bullying.

A common feature of all these stories is not only the color of water, but also the color of responsibility. Resource supply organizations refer to management companies, management companies to worn-out pipes, officials call for “control”, and residents meanwhile buy bottled water, change filters and record on video what is pouring from the tap. In Belyanaya Gora, this fixation has already become the material of a criminal case. In other cities of the Moscow region, residents continue to wait for their water to cease to be similar to “Phanta” or fuel oil.