Svitlana Morenets Svitlana Morenets

Russian-occupied Ukraine is running out of water

The North Crimean Canal is seen with a low level of water, on September 29, 2020 in Kalanchak, Ukraine. (Photo by Pierre Crom/Getty Images)

In a way, the war in Ukraine is a fight for resources. Water is one of them. For half a century, most of the water in Crimea has been piped in from Ukraine through the North Crimean Canal – but Kyiv stopped the supply when Moscow annexed the peninsula in 2014. Cue panic. Moscow officials tried to reassure the population that they could solve the problem. There was talk of building a water pipeline from Russia, but they went for a bridge instead. Crimean agriculture and industry started to suffer from drought and once-fertile fields, the steppes, slowly turned into desert. Moscow offered Kyiv cash for water, but was ignored.

By 2017, Russian officials had admitted that the area of irrigated land in Crimea had shrunk by 92 per cent, halting rice production. Crimeans started to receive tap water hourly, in the mornings and evenings.

Svitlana Morenets
Written by
Svitlana Morenets

Svitlana Morenets is a Ukrainian journalist and a staff writer at The Spectator. She was named Young Journalist of the Year in the 2024 UK Press Awards. Subscribe to her free weekly email, Ukraine in Focus, here

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