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Most of the Crimean reservoirs this year became very shallow, the Russian administration was unable to establish water supply to cities and towns.
In Crimea, there is a catastrophic scale of freshwater shortage due to the collapse of reservoirs and other sources after Kiev blocked the northern Crimean canal, through which the water of the Dnieper flowed. After the Russian annexation, the peninsula experienced its driest period in 150 years of observation.
However, Russian leader Vladimir Putin insists there is enough “good” fresh water in Crimea and promises a quick solution to the problem. Apparently Moscow does not yet have a coherent strategy. And the peninsula dries up in the meantime. Correspondent.net says the details.
Agriculture is not a priority
Before the annexation of the peninsula by Russia in 2014, 85 percent of fresh water entered the Crimea through the North Crimean Canal. Approximately 80 percent of the total volume of this water was used for agricultural purposes, the remaining 20 percent was discharged into reservoirs and was used to supply the population.
In the spring of 2014, after annexation, Ukraine stopped supplying water to the Crimean territory by installing a dam dam in the Kherson region.
Dry bed of the North Crimean canal
At present, the peninsula has water from local reservoirs with natural flow and underground water sources, which began to develop actively after the annexation. In recent years, Crimea has experienced a drought, as have other territories in southern Ukraine.
“The North Crimean Canal is not working, the reservoirs are not filling and have already become ecological objects of degradation. Due to global warming, local rivers and lakes that are formed by runoff are not filling,” the deputy director of scientific work of the Institute of Water Problems and Improvement of the National Academy quotes DW Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine Mikhail Yatsyuk.
During summer and autumn in the Crimea, many natural lakes dry up or lose depth, feed on underground water sources, and melt water from the mountains. Crimean social media users post photos and videos of how Lake Krasnokamenskoye, a lake near the town of Zalesnoye, Bakhchisarai district, became shallow and dry.
In September this year it became known that the well-known Lake Sasyk-Sivash between the cities of Evpatoria and Saki had dried up, and previously Lake Bogaili in the Saki region disappeared.
One of the strategically important sources of Simferopol, the reservoir of the same name, has always been called “Sea of Simferopol” due to its size. Today, the once huge body of water looks more like a pond that is drying up. According to experts, the volume of the reservoir has recently decreased about ten times.
The water has moved hundreds of meters from shore and now you can walk along the bottom. Underfoot are dried algae and shells that once lived under the water column. There is also enough garbage, from bottles to tires, according to the report from the Znak portal.
According to environmentalists, the regular use of water from underground sources has caused the salinization of the soil in the peninsula. The Crimean Kremlin authorities regularly urge the residents of the peninsula to save water. Since the summer, in many regions of the peninsula, there is a schedule for the supply of water to the population, and the neighbors complain about its poor quality.
Furthermore, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, after a visit to annexed Crimea in mid-November, said that the lack of water on the peninsula was due to the fact that the Crimeans themselves were allegedly stealing it.
On December 17, during his press conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the water problems in Crimea are due to the fact that “no one was involved in this.” He added that the problem of water supply will be solved, noting that “this work is being carried out extensively.”
On December 21, the head of the Crimean “parliament” Vladimir Konstantinov said that Crimea’s “full water autonomy” will come in 2024. According to Konstantinov, funding for the program to solve the problem has already started.
In mid-autumn 2020, the Russian government allocated 50 billion rubles (about 19 billion hryvnia) to implement a plan for the Crimean water supply. Also, more than half (26 billion) will go to Sevastopol.
This distribution can be explained by the fact that the main priority for Russia is the supply of water to its military bases. This was also said by the former Minister of Resorts and Tourism of Crimea, who in the past headed the water sector of the autonomous republic within Ukraine, Alexander Liev.
“To provide water to military bases, there are absolutely enough resources in Crimea. Do you think Putin does not sleep in the Kremlin and thinks: ‘How are the Crimeans going to get water there for hours? “Yeah, it doesn’t float at all,” he said. he is in an interview with Present Tense.
Tamila Tasheva, Deputy Permanent Representative of the President in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, also talks about this. According to her, drinking water for the needs of the civilian population is largely made up of natural flows. The shortage is due to the needs of Russian military bases and industrial facilities, he says.
Tasheva stressed that Ukraine will not provide water to the “Russian military machine in Crimea”, therefore, the issue of water supply through the North Crimean Canal is not on the agenda until the “complete de-occupation of Russia” from the peninsula.
Sergei Tyumentsev, a member of the board of directors of the Crimean branch of the Russian ecological party Zelenye, speaks of “a crisis in their heads.”
“It seems that the authorities do not need a result, it is important that they have a permanent problem, that they partially solve it with money from the budget and that they ask for subsidies again and again. Let’s not listen to rational proposals. This can be called sabotage, sabotage by officials of various levels against the people, ”he told the Znak portal.
As part of the fight against the water crisis, Crimean officials came up with the idea of installing 5-10 cubic meter blue plastic containers with taps in residential areas. They should be filled with water periodically. But there is no delivery schedule, so they are unpopular with the locals.
Sign
The head of the Crimean human rights group, Olga Skripnik, believes that Moscow will not solve the problem either.
“Russia will not invest to ensure that Crimeans have water, but it will continue to speculate on the water issue and pressure Ukraine to let Kiev let the water pass through the northern Crimean canal,” he predicts.
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