The water crisis in occupied Crimea is deepening, despite a temporary increase in reserves following heavier rainfall and snowmelt. Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence warns that increased extraction from underground sources is depleting aquifers, raising the mineralization of the water and creating a risk of soil salinization.
At the beginning of October, the average level of the peninsula’s reservoirs was around 45%. On October 9, the reservoirs with natural inflow contained 148.4 million cubic meters of water – more than twice the level recorded for the same period of the previous year.
However, this increase does not offset current consumption. Around 138,000 cubic meters of water flow into the reservoirs each day, while consumption reaches 455,000 cubic meters. According to Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence, 81% of the amount used goes toward water supply, while the remaining 19% is lost through evaporation and infiltration into the soil.
Reservoirs Almost Devoid of Water
The situation is even more serious at the reservoirs whose replenishment depends on external sources. Their total reserves fell from around 35 million cubic meters at the beginning of September to 31.6 million cubic meters at the beginning of October – a decline of approximately 10% in one month.
The Mezhhirne Reservoir is filled to just 0.2% of its designed capacity and, according to Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence, has practically lost its role as a fully functional source of water supply. At low levels, water abstraction is hampered by siltation, while the quality of the water in the bottom layers deteriorates.
Dependence on Groundwater
The problems are also linked to the limited use of the North Crimean Canal. According to Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence, after the destruction of the dam of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant in June 2023, the Kakhovka Reservoir disappeared, leaving the canal without its main water source. The main section and the northern branch to Dzhankoi are without water, while the eastern branch is used to transport water from artesian wells to Feodosia and Kerch.
This system leads to significant losses. When smaller quantities of groundwater are transported through a canal designed for large volumes of Dnipro water, between 40% and 45% of the resource is lost due to evaporation and filtration.
By the beginning of October, a total of 19.6 million cubic meters of water had been extracted from the three main artesian water intakes – Nezhinsky, Prostor نensky and Novogrigorovsky. Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence warns that excessive pumping lowers aquifer levels and creates conditions for saltwater intrusion into underground reserves, especially in coastal areas.
The situation remains most difficult in the eastern part of Crimea, where a fresh-water conservation regime has been introduced and supplies to industrial and recreational facilities have been restricted. In the event of drought, breakdowns or a critical decline in reserves, individual settlements are supplied by water tankers.
According to Ukrainian intelligence, the prolonged lowering of groundwater levels and the accumulation of salts may lead to the degradation of agricultural land, damage to ecosystems and the emergence of soils with the characteristics of solonchaks.
Sources: unian.net