Russia: Kid Fell In Sewer Exposing Serious Infrastructure Decay

The recent drowning of a toddler in Bryansk has turned national attention to the city's decrepit sewer system. But Russia’s infrastructure problems are nationwide. At least 10 cave-ins – like the one that killed 18-month-old Kiril Didenko – have occurred in the past two years.

Earlier this month, Tatyana Didenko, 26, was strolling down the sidewalk in the southwestern Russian city of Bryansk, pushing her toddler son in his stroller. Suddenly, the ground below her feet gave way, dropping the mother and 18-month-old Kiril into a fetid abyss.

By her own account, Tatyana fell about 20 meters with the stroller into a sewer pipe. Fighting a strong current, she forced her way back to the opening and thus barely avoided being sucked deeper into the sewer system and drowning. Standing nearby were several people who knew the woman. They called her husband, Vladimir Didenko, the ranking lieutenant on the local police force, who was working about three kilometers away.

He arrived minutes later. On his way, Vladimir stopped other drivers, looking for ropes. When he arrived at the scene, he secured himself with the ropes and went in to pull out his wife. A couple minutes later, the rescue operation finally succeeded, and Tatyana, with the stroller she was still holding, was pulled to freedom. Only when she was freed from the sewer did she realize her son, Kiril, was no longer in the stroller.

For the next 27 hours, 16 special brigades, around 500 people in total, searched for the child in 59 different manholes along the eight-kilometer-long sewer system. At around 5 p.m. the following day Kiril’s lifeless body finally appeared.