You're reading: Kyiv official: Crimea water issue must be decided as business

 The question of water deliveries for Crimea requires a legal framework, said Volodymyr Hroisman, the Ukrainian Minister of Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Communal Services. "Today there is no reason to supply water. I think Crimea, too, needs to work harder on this issue, and then it will be possible to settle the issue. It is a matter for two businesses which must agree on how to carry out these operations," the minister said at a briefing on April 23.

 The Ukrainian State Water Resources Agency said earlier that water supplies for Crimea cannot be increased to the planned 2014 levels because there is no agreement for water supply services between a Crimean authorized representative and the North Crimean Canal administration. A draft of such an agreement was only received by the North Crimean Canal administration from the Krasnoperekopsky inter-district water agency on April 15, 2014.

It was reported that on April 14 Crimea’s First Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Temirgaliyev said that Ukraine cut water deliveries to the peninsula via the North Crimean Canal to nearly 16 cubic meters per second instead of the expected 50 cubic meters per second.

Temirgaliev also said that Crimea repeatedly sent necessary documentation and water supply agreements to the Ukrainian authorities, but on several occasions received what he called an unjustified refusal to sign the necessary water supply agreement.