Moscow recently witnessed an astonishing spectacle as a geyser of brown liquid erupted from a broken sewage main, soaring above surrounding buildings.
Captured in widely shared videos, the massive fountain has stirred conversation online, with social media users and news outlets alike questioning its cause and implications. Former Ukrainian government advisor Anton Gerashchenko captioned the event as a “literal sh*t show.”
According to reports from Moscow-based Telegram channels, the sewage system experienced a major malfunction, producing a towering fountain of murky water that dwarfed nearby high-rise buildings. Gazprom, the Russian state-owned utility company, later addressed the incident, stating that sewers in the Novaya Moskova district were undergoing routine maintenance and the situation was “under control.”
Online observers debated the cause, with some suggesting the brown color might not be due to sewage but rather to rust from Moscow’s thermal heating system purges, common in October. One user commented, “In our apartment in Craiova, the heating is pressurized in October, and the water that comes out is rusty colored like this.” Despite such theories, Gazprom has yet to confirm the exact source of the water’s color.
Moscow’s situation is not isolated; similar “poo-splosions” have erupted in other countries. Just last month, a new sewage pipe in Nanning, China exploded during a pressure test, scattering waste onto cars, pedestrians, and pets. Videos of the incident dubbed it a “poo-cano,” with witnesses describing the unpleasant aftermath, including one driver lamenting, “I’m drenched in poo, my car is splattered yellow—it’s ruined.”
While nobody was injured in these recent incidents, past sewer explosions have proven deadly. In 1992, a gas leak led to multiple explosions in Guadalajara, Mexico, killing over 200 people and damaging 1,000 buildings.
More recently, a wastewater explosion in a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, forced residents to evacuate, though local authorities quickly provided compensation.