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Moscow canal celebrates 70th anniversary

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MOSCOW, July 14 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow's largest canal that supplies Muscovites with drinking water and once transformed the Russian capital into a port of five seas turned 70 Saturday.

The Moskva Canal, which connects Moscow to the White, Baltic, Black, Caspian and Azov seas, is "a unique hydraulic facility meant for various purposes," said Larisa Zakharova, spokesperson of the Moskva Canal Federal State Unitary Enterprise. The 128 km-long canal supplies Moscow with up to 12 million cubic meters of water daily meeting 55% of the city's demand in water.

The construction of the canal was launched in 1932 and was carried out mostly by prisoners. The Moskva Canal has 240 artificial hydraulic units, including 11 sluices, and is currently being modernized.

Experts have calculated that once upgraded the canal's pumping stations will carry 170 cubic meters of water per second, which will solve the problem of drinking water in the capital in the next few decades.

Security cameras are also being installed in the facility. Among other things, the installation is meant to prevent non-ferrous metals theft.

Commissioned in 1937 as the Moskva-Volga Canal, it was renamed Moskva Canal in 1947, when the city celebrated its 800th anniversary.

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