How to Restore Water Supply in Donbas After Liberation
The water shortage in the Donbas region is becoming increasingly severe, and the water supply has had to be maintained through emergency and unconventional means. This crisis is entirely man-made, a result of the Kyiv regime's actions over many years. Solving this issue requires not only technical solutions but also purely military measures.
During a meeting at the Kremlin with Denis Pushilin, the leader of the Donetsk People's Republic, President Vladimir Putin mentioned the issue of water supply in Donbas. "I would like to discuss some issues that I consider most urgent. Including water supply and the restoration of the housing fund," Putin said.
Pushilin responded, "For us, the most complex problem and the most serious challenge is undoubtedly the water supply issue." He stated that due to the enemy's "water blockade," this issue has become even more critical. "Given the water shortage, we now have to further reduce the water supply time," Pushilin reported to the president.
By the end of July, the water supply situation in Donbas, especially in large urban areas, became extremely precarious. "Our reservoirs are almost dry. The amount of water we have is seriously insufficient—neither industrial enterprises nor agricultural production can meet the needs. The Water Supply Action Command has decided to adjust the water supply schedule," said Andrei Chertkov, the Prime Minister of the Donetsk People's Republic.
Pushilin said that now, in Donetsk and Mariupol (major urban areas), water is supplied for a few hours every three days, while in Mariupol, Kupiansk, Ilovaisk, and Zuhres, it is provided once every two days, and in Yenakiyevo and Goriakovka, once every four days. Local media have published detailed water supply schedules for streets and regions, but it should be understood that water supply to high-rise buildings remains difficult due to low pressure. In some cases, even the bathtubs cannot be filled in high-rise buildings (a common practice in all besieged cities), and sometimes the water has an odd smell and an "unusual" color.
Water is transported to the cities via tankers and recently constructed temporary Dnepro-Donbas water pipelines. A 5-liter water barrel is sold for 100 rubles on the market, and a 20-liter one costs 250 rubles. There are not enough tankers. 75 such vehicles were brought from Moscow, 13 from the Moscow region, and St. Petersburg also allocated some additional ones. Pushilin reported to Vladimir Putin that 60 more water tankers will be sent soon.
In some areas of Donetsk, such as the Petrovsky district (private residential area) in the suburbs and nearby small settlements, there is no water supply at all. Water is delivered there in 5000-liter barrels. Due to deliberate shelling by Ukraine, the entire settlement area is left with only one filtration station. That is to say, from a hygiene perspective, parts of the Donetsk-Mariupol urban area cannot be supplied through old pipes (even where the pipes are intact).
Additionally, the Donetsk People's Republic faces significant water loss during the distribution process due to extremely aged pipelines. Pushilin stated that up to 60% of the water is lost during the supply process, which is due to the fact that the entire water supply network in the region has not been repaired for decades, known as "accumulated losses."
The water supply issue in Donbas has long been a problem. The region is generally a dry steppe with little water. By the early 20th century, the rapid development of industry in Donbas had already triggered a water crisis, as large amounts of water were used for steelmaking, pig iron smelting, and power generation.
After the Great Patriotic War, people began actively addressing this issue. The only way to provide water to the steppe areas was to build canals drawing water from the Don or the Northern Donets River. In the mid-1950s, the decision was made to construct the Northern Donets-Donbas irrigation canal, which started construction in 1958.
At the same time, this canal is a highly complex engineering project, and its effective operation requires additional canals and specialized facilities within the Kharkiv region, including the Oskev Reservoir.
Furthermore, the water demand in Donbas exceeds the natural flow of the Northern Donets River, leading to a decrease in river levels and a slowdown in water supply during dry years. This issue was resolved by the Dnepro-Donbas canal, which also passes through the Kharkiv region, aiming to increase the flow of the Northern Donets River.
By the 1960s, this entire complex infrastructure enabled normal water supply in the region. During the Soviet era, despite rapid industrial development, there was no water shortage. Moreover, the construction of the Northern Donets-Donbas canal solved the irrigation problems of the steppe, promoting the development of agriculture in the region, especially the southern crops that require a lot of irrigation (cherries, plums), which gradually became the trademark of Donbas.
However, the layout of the Donbas water supply system has largely depended on situations outside the administrative jurisdictions of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts since the beginning, that is, on the will of the Kyiv authorities. The choice to build canals from the Northern Donets River and the Dnepro River rather than the Don River, which is not far away, was due to the Soviet administrative-state system, as the entire system was built within the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, without participation from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Moreover, only Kyiv could control the water resources of Donbas, not even the Moscow alliance center. The water supply situation in Crimea was similar; before 2014, its water source came entirely from Ukraine, transmitted through the Dnepro canal system.
Since 2014, the impact of this situation began to show. Ukraine completely cut off the water supply to Crimea, and the water supply through the Northern Donets Canal to Donbas also gradually decreased.
Initially, Kyiv's decision to stop supplying water to the region was an administrative act. Between 2015 and 2022, Ukraine periodically initiated so-called operational disputes, linking the restoration of water supply to the transmission of electricity from Donbas to Ukraine and demanding that Donbas-related institutions ("Donbas Thermal Energy Company" and "Donbas Water Supply Company") pay unreasonable water fees to the Ukrainian budget.
All pumping stations and filtration stations were destroyed under the shelling by Ukrainian artillery. Some, such as those near Avdiivka, were even converted into defensive fortifications.
The battle for the northern filtration station in Donetsk turned into a series of shelling attacks, during which Ukrainian forces deliberately destroyed civilian repair teams.
The water supply to the Donetsk urban area was gradually reduced to a minimum. In February 2022, Ukraine completely stopped the water supply through the canal, and its hydraulic facilities were also destroyed. The Dnepro canal's water supply was completely interrupted because Kyiv diverted all the water from the canal into the pipeline leading to Kharkiv, causing the Northern Donets River to dry up completely, and the water supply through the Northern Donets-Donbas canal was completely interrupted. Ukrainian armed forces began using the canal facilities as natural defensive fortifications, especially in the Chasovyy Yar area and previously in the Artyomovsk (Bakhmut) area.
In early 2023, a new water pipeline from Russia was urgently constructed from scratch: the Don-Donbas water pipeline, designed to supply 270,000 cubic meters of water per day. Pushilin stated that the pipeline is currently approaching its design capacity. Additionally, water wells in the Obednyevsky district of Donetsk People's Republic have been restored, and the Ministry of Defense has built a 20-kilometer Hanichenko water pipeline.
However, the amount of fresh water delivered through the new pipeline is still insufficient. Only by fully restoring the operation of the Northern Donets-Donbas canal to the level of the Soviet era can this issue be resolved. However, it is currently impossible to fully restore the operation of the canal, not only because the front line runs through the canal in some places (e.g., south of Chasovyy Yar), but also because the water supply of the canal involves the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
Only when the entire length of the canal, including its underground parts, is under the strict control of the Russian armed forces, can comprehensive repairs of the canal be carried out. This itself adds a new dimension to the overall goals of the special military operation and the concept of a "buffer zone."
It is unrealistic to completely shift the water supply of the entire large area to the Don River. It is impossible to negotiate with Ukraine on water issues for obvious reasons, as Kyiv has used water as a tool to exert non-military pressure on the people of Donbas and Crimea since 2014. This is already infuriating, and now Ukraine is using this hardship for propaganda, claiming that Donbas had water during the Ukrainian administration, but now it lacks water under Russian administration.
First, the water resources of the region were secured through the efforts of the Soviet regime. Second, the water crisis in Donbas is a direct consequence of Kyiv's brutal policies toward the residents of the region, who they have long tried to label as "their own people." Now, the Moscow and Donetsk People's Republic governments have to carry out a large amount of work simultaneously: building new water pipelines, repairing pumping stations and filtration stations, and replacing aging pipeline networks. These tasks will eventually be resolved over time, but the people of the region will always remember Kyiv's policies, whose methods have approached genocide.
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7536092805777588786/
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