Russia’s recent military buildup in Crimea may worsen a pre-existing water shortage in the region, Ukrainian government minister Ihor Yaremenko said Sunday.
The Ukrainian government shut down a 250-mile canal that carried fresh water to Crimea in 2014 following Russia’s annexation of the peninsula. The action plunged Crimea into a water shortage, which grew worse in 2020 amid a severe drought.
Ihor Yaremenko, deputy minister for the Ukrainian government’s “Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine” ministry, told the Ukrainian news site Obozrevatel on April 11 he suspects Russia’s increased military presence in Crimea in recent weeks may strain an already limited supply of fresh water on the peninsula.
“I think Russia will redirect all water resources as much as possible to provide it to privileged categories — the military, leadership of the occupation authorities, etc.,” he told the news site. “They care about water supplies to military bases. But talking about water for ordinary homes of ordinary residents of [Crimean cities such as] Simferopol or Sevastopol — who cares?”
Yaremenko said:
Ninety percent of water that had been flowing to Crimea before the war started was used for industrial and agricultural purposes. At the same time, this allowed maintaining adequate volumes of drinking water and groundwater in stock, to make sure it doesn’t go saline. Now this water is non-available for agriculture. That is, it’s used on both fronts.
The increasing “non-availability” of Crimea’s limited water supply is “due to a buildup of Russia’s military presence in the occupied Crimea, restoration of military bases, as well as the deployment of new army groupings and weapons, which requires additional water resources,” according to the government minister.
Ukraine used to provide up to 85 percent of Crimea’s freshwater supply through the North Crimean Canal prior to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
“In 2020, the situation with the availability of water in Crimea reached a critical level over droughts and shallowing of reservoirs. The occupying [Russian] authorities limited the use of water in many towns and villages,” Ukrainian news site UNIAN recalled Sunday.
“The Russian-controlled administration of Crimea says 2020 has been the driest year in 150 years,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported of the record drought last fall.
Ukrainian government officials have said they would consider restoring Crimea’s water supply if Russia ceased its occupation of the Crimean peninsula, though “experts say it is technically impossible to restore water delivery to Crimea through the North Crimean Canal since it has become completely unusable over the past years,” UNIAN noted.