Estimate for the arrangement of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra sewerage system

Have you heard anything about the estimate for the arrangement of the sewerage system on the territory of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra?

In autumn, 1927, such petition was sent to the management of Kyiv Vodokanal by “All-Ukrainian Museum Town” State Historical and Cultural Preserve. Its aim was to get the estimate for the arrangement of the sewerage system on the territory of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.

Sewerage and drainage systems were in a “completely helpless” state at that time. They had operated without any repairing works for more than a decade.

The steam engine, which pumped sewage from the territory of Lavra to the city sewerage network, was dismantled and removed in the first half of the 1920^s. It was the time when the so-called “town for the disabled people” was in the process of arrangement on the territory of Lavra. All “sewage mass” was poured directly into the Dnieper River. Among other things, this activity led to the intensification of landslides on the Lavra slopes and to the deterioration of the sanitary and hygienic living conditions of the town citizens.

According to the preliminary estimate, made in early 1928, thirty Lavra’s retirades were planned to be repaired, new pipes had to be laid, drainage wells and ventilate systems had to be installed. Besides, according to the prearranged schedule of works, new hatches instead of the stolen ones had to be installed as well as the tank near the pump station had to be repaired.

Captions to the illustrations:

1. Lavra’s courtyard between buildings № 4 and 21. The first third of the 20^th century. (National Preserve “Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra”, inv. № [KPL-N-3653]

2. The Dnieper River coast in the vicinity of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. First third of the 20^th century. [Scientific archive of the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, file 10, case № 17]

Anna Yanenko