Nota Bene: А у нас водопровод - вот!

On December 12, 1863, the first section of the city water supply was commissioned in St. Petersburg, a monumental achievement for the capital of the Russian Empire. The project was managed by a joint-stock company that struggled with a chronic lack of funds. Early in 1863, after the construction of a water tower on Shpalernaya Street and the laying of several kilometers of pipes, work was halted due to financial constraints. The slow uptake of shares was partly due to societal conservatism and a desire for water choice; water carriers offered varied sources, whereas the pipe supplied a single, unfiltered supply that required boiling. Despite this, households quickly appreciated the convenience of continuous water delivery, and servants no longer had to haul buckets up the stairs. A significant innovation that demanded large volumes of water was the water closet, a toilet that flushed waste into the sewer system; initially confined to the finest homes, it soon spread throughout the city. Ten years later, residents on the right bank of the Neva began using the water supply, and twenty years after that, the St. Petersburg City Duma bought the joint-stock companies, bringing the system under municipal ownership. By 1911, the water was chlorinated, marking a century of progress in urban water infrastructure.