A YouTube video showing two trucks pushing water up a slope into a small sewer drain at Sochi Olympics site.
With billions of dollars being spent on preparing Sochi for the upcoming Winter Olympics, engineers seem to have overlooked one important thing — a stormwater drainage system capable of coping with heavy rainfall and flash floods.
The oversight became all too apparent this week after days of heavy rain made the city's inefficient drainage system a reason for laughter online.
A YouTube video shows two trucks driving back and forth on a 10-meter stretch on the Olympic Park Circuit, pushing water up a slope into a small sewer drain.
The clean-up session gives little hope of proving successful, with water running everywhere expect into the small hole in the ground.
The three-minute video was taken by a bystander close to the future site of the Russian Formula One Grand Prix.
"They're preparing the ice rink for the Olympics," one viewer wrote.
The Emergency Situations Ministry declared a state of emergency in Sochi on Tuesday night, following severe rainfall that flooded many of the city's streets and residential areas.
Even though the weather conditions have received wide attention in the media on account of the Winter Games in February, the floods itself are hardly new to Sochi.
"Every Sochi resident knows that such rainfall happens in Sochi all the time, and the city, situated in a mountainous area, needs to have a storm water drainage system," the news site Sochi-24.ru said.
Earlier this month, heavy rainfall also flooded the city's airport and a train station, prompting transport authorities to rethink the city's drainage system.
The Winter Olympics are expected to cost about $50 billion, making them the most expensive in history.
