They do this every winter in order to survive in Yakutia.

In this video, we travel to the Yakutian village of Khatassy, where temperatures drop to -40 degrees Celsius. Due to the lack of central plumbing in private houses, locals have to harvest river ice every winter to provide their families with clean drinking water. You will see the entire grueling process of manual ice harvesting: from cutting the frozen river with a chainsaw to loading huge blocks into a truck and melting them in the warmth of their home. Timecodes: 00:00 – Intro: Extreme work on a frozen river at -40°C. 00:16 – Life in Khatassy village: Why Yakutian families live without plumbing and harvest ice. 00:36 – Meet Arian and morning preparations for the grueling labor. 01:08 – Heading to a pre-cleared spot on the river with Konstantin. 02:00 – The harvest begins: Prepping the chainsaw and cutting the ice outline. 02:45 – Backbreaking manual labor: Using ice picks and removing the top layer of ice so the water doesn't smell like gasoline. 04:36 – Pulling the first massive blocks of ice out of the freezing water to the surface. 06:53 – First batch is ready: Why there is still a lot of work ahead and a lunch break. 08:52 – Returning to the river after rest to extract the remaining ice. 11:21 – Chopping the huge slabs into smaller squares and loading them into the truck. 11:54 – Returning home with the precious supply of ice in the evening darkness. 12:14 – Unloading the ice in the yard and the unspoken rule of clean "living" water in Yakutia. 13:08 – Melting ice in a barrel and a well-deserved warm family dinner after a hard day.