Fountains ready to spurt and squirt

Moscow's fountains are set to spring to life this Thursday when Mayor Yury Luzhkov starts the Muzyka Slavy fountain next to Kuzminki metro station.
The city has been gearing up for the big day with trial runs of its many fountains. The test program began on April 15 when the Gody Voiny or "Years of War" fountain at Poklonnaya Gora was unpacked from its 375-tonne temporary protective winter case.
Meanwhile, the South-East Administrative District recently conducted research as to what type of fountains its residents would like to see built in their neighbourhood.
"On the eve of the start of the fountains in spring, the authorities conducted a survey of our residents on the prefecture's web site asking what kind of fountains they would like to see decorating the south-east of the city," RIA Novosti quoted South-East Administrative District Prefect Vladimir Zotov as saying. "The leading choices were a mirrored fountain among women and, among men, a Guus Hiddink fountain, the bottom of which would remind you of a football or small football field in a stadium."
The prefect added that in male respondents' opinion, a mirrored fountain would be practical for women because if the need arose they could use it to "wash and apply their make-up".
He said that it was suggested that the bottom and sides of the fountain would be mirrored, while the football fountain "would be a place where football fans could gather before the Russian national side plays a match."
The crisis has not left the capital's fountain scene unscathed, however. Plans for a fountain by the soon-to-be-completed Volokolamskaya metro station have been cancelled. "For the sake of economy, we will be using more modest décor in the stations, for example, by the Volokolamskaya metro there will not be two fountains, which were originally planned, but all the same the station will be beautiful," said the head of the metro system, Dmitry Gayev.
The capital has some 270 fountains, with the oldest being Teatralnaya Ploshchad's Vitali fountain, built in 1835. Many work 24 hours, such as those at Manezhnaya Ploshchad, at Poklonnaya Gora, and at Ploshchad Kievskogo Vokzala. Other fountains run from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.