Hot water turns green in Astana

Green hot water runs from taps in Astana apartments, Tengrinews reports.

Vladimir Gritsyuk from Astana has submitted a complaint about it at the capital's official website. According to Mr. Gritsyuk water in the tap is lime green.

"I suspect that the city Water and Sewerage Department has been adding dye to the water to be able to detect boiler leaks," Mr. Gritsyuk told a Tengrinews reporter.

Sergey Golev, First Deputy Chairman of Astana-TeploTranzit, the company supplying hot water to Astana apartments, admitted the shrewd Astana resident was right about the dye. Uranin A dye was added to the water to check the heating equipment, he said. "Uranin A dye is a special color indicator. It is safe, according to the Health Inspection Service. We use it to dye water in our heating equipment. How does it work? Basically, if the equipment is operating correctly and has not leaks then the dyed water does not get into a hot water pipes and taps. But what we see now shows that the equipment is not working properly and needs to be repaired," Mr. Golev said.

The dye in the tap water indicates that the tap water mixes with the water inside the heat-exchange equipment because of a leak or other equipment failure, the First Deputy Chairman explained. The dyeing is a prescheduled project of Astana-TeploTranzit called to check the eqiupment. It has so far identifed that heat-exchange equipment of 58 apartment buildings requires repairs. Chemical analyses and test of tap water samples will be make as part of the project.

Astana Su Arnasy, the city Water and Sewerage Service company, has urged everyone who has green water running from taps to report these cases by calling the following phone numbers to help identify equipment failures: 771200, 771211, 771216, 792160, 792162.