One cannot safely swim or fish in the pond next to the Ramada Hotel in Koltsovsky Tract, Chair of Yekaterinburg Council Urban Development Committee Tamara Blagodatkova warns.

However, the hotel still positions the pond as its competitive advantage and hosts wakeboard and water skiing competitions there.

‘A nearly two-hectare waste landfill is located in the nearby forest to the left of the pond. In the winter, the communal housing and utilities services of Oktyabrsky District relocate the snow from the city streets there. There is no question of this snow being clean: it contains pieces of asphalt, car exhausts, and the sand and salt mixture,’ the official said.

Rospotrebnadzor shares the Chair’s views.

Nevertheless, the pond is a very popular place, and in the summer, the hotel staff offer water skiing services to all those willing to use them.

The hotel was built by Mayak Corporation and is a member of the global chain of the same name.