Urgent measures to stop flooding in Siberia as winter ice starts to melt

In fact there is a serious purpose behind all this. This is the time of year in Siberia for starting the business of ice breaking which can literally save lives. 

In some places it involves the use of the special machines to cut up the frozen water into small squares, preventing walls of ice forming, damming up potential floodwaters. 

The ice then flows more freely downstream. In other areas, explosives are used to break up the ice. 

Across Russia as a whole, some 3,296 villages, towns and cities are in jeopardy from this kind of flooding. So are 34 sections of rail track, 885 sectors of roads and highways, and 796 low-water bridges. 

Satellite monitoring from space is used to identify places most in peril.

Seven Siberian regions have been identified as especially at risk, one of them being Kemerovo where ice-cutting is undertaken on the Tom River to prevent flooding notably at the city of Novokuznetsk.

In 2004, the level of the river rose as much as eight metres. 

The ice cutting is underway now so that it drifts safely downstream in the second half of April. 

Another river with ice breaking underway is the Selena River in Buryatia, which flows into Lake Baikal. 

The aim is to save the settlements of  Voznesenovka, Ganzurino, Ilyinka, Cardon, Petuhovka, Saratovka and Shaluty.  Some 260 houses with 1,200 people, including 300 children, could be at risk without this vital work. 

Siberian regions especially at risk are the Altai Republic, Altai Region, Irkutsk, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Tomsk, and the Sakha Republic (Yakutia). 

Successful planning of operations - which include volunteers - by the  Emergencies Ministry has led to a marked reduction serious problems in recent years. 

'The steps taken earlier were very fruitful. In 2006, 22 emergencies were caused by floods in Russia,' said Sergei Didenko, director of the ministry's civil protection department. 'In 2010, their number dropped to eight and in 2011 to four. There were no flood-caused death cases in 2012'.

Watch ice exploding works in Tomsk