The deteriorating water supply in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine – both in terms of availability and quality when it’s there – has been a hot issue for both mainstream and social media in Crimea, the Donbas, and other Russian-occupied areas from even before the 2022 full-scale invasion.
Eastern and southern Ukraine used to benefit from one of the rare triumphs of Soviet times – expansive reservoirs, a network of man-made and natural distribution channels, such as the “Seversky Donets – Donbass” and the “North Crimean” canals, serviced by a constellation of pumping stations, built in the 1950s.
Attacks on energy infrastructure by both Russia and Ukraine are an oft-reported feature of the war, but the damage caused to the water distribution network – particularly in the occupied territories which were largely fed from areas that remain in Ukrainian hands who have not been slow in depriving their enemy of the essential resource where it could.
Crimea
The energy issues website, “Ukrainska Energetika,” commented on the situation on the occupied Crimean Peninsula in November 2024.
Prior to Russia’s illegal annexation in 2014, the peninsula received more than 85% of its fresh water via the North Crimean Canal – one of the largest engineering projects undertaken by the Soviet Union. The canal drew water from the Dnipro River in mainland Ukraine but, following the annexation Kyiv cut off the water supply – a temporary dam erected in the Kherson region blocked the supply, and the pumping stations situated in the northern Crimean Krasnoperekopsk region were disabled.
Russia destroyed the dam shortly after the full-scale invasion. It partially reinstated the supply, but that was insufficient to service the vast increases in the water needs of the peninsula.
After 2014, the problems were multiplied as Russia sent in huge numbers of troops that effectively converted the peninsula to a vast military base and thousands of Russian civilians were attracted into the peninsula in search of the good life promised by Moscow’s propaganda, grabbing land and property once owned by now displaced Ukrainians and a building bonanza for villas, apartment blocks, recreation centers and hotels ensued.
Water needs were very much a “second thought” of the developers – new water intake structures overwhelmed existing reservoirs; the digging of wells denuded the water table; energy-hungry desalination plants all failed to satisfy the peninsula’s thirst and, in many ways, simply exacerbated the situation.
Added to that, the destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (KHPP) dam on the Dnipro in June 2023 further severely impacted water supplies to Crimea.
As the ISW reported in June, the severe water crisis faced by Crimea which was triggered by the Russian invasion, has been exacerbated by “mismanagement and resource misallocation.” Russian-Crimean-based experts cited by ISW say reservoirs on the peninsula are losing water at an alarming rate and currently hold less than 50% of their designed volume and are falling fast as summer approaches. While Russian authorities urge the population to conserve water and have introduced restrictions on water use for residents, they have been diverting supplies to tourist hotspots which are becoming full once again as the Kremlin subsidizes the influx and propaganda portrays the “normality” of Crimean life, making the situation ever worse.
The Donbas
The heavy industry based in the Donbas had a huge appetite for water that was more than adequately fed by the “Seversky Donets – Donbas” canal, which had sufficient capacity to provide all of the water needs of agriculture as well as the civilian population. At its peak, it pumped more than 40 cubic meters (9,000 imperial, 10,600 US gallons) of water a second – 4 million cubic meters (9 billion imperial, 1 trillion US gallons) of water a day. Half of this came from the Seversky Donets River and half from the Pechenizske and Krasnooskolskoye reservoirs.
Since occupation of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions by Russian and rebel forces the water supply situation has, like that in Crimea, become a problem for the occupiers as the source of much of their water and the infrastructure to convey it are controlled by Ukraine, which could have been worse because several of the subsidiary pipelines and pumping stations lie on or cross the “demarcation line.” This has allowed some supplies to continue based on what the pro-Russian commentator Alexander Dmitrievsky said was based on very fragile, and often unspoken, agreements between the parties.
However, the situation has consistently deteriorated since the full-scale 2022 invasion as fighting in the cities of the region intensified. As the Moscow Times reported on July 14, much of the water from the Seversky Donets-Donbass canal was brought into population centers by subsidiary pipelines and many pumping stations which were sited close to the towns of Bakhmut, Chasiv Yar, Toretsk, Avdiivka and others which have seen months of heavy fighting. The pipelines, the pumping stations themselves, and the power lines that fed the pumps were completely destroyed.
The Russian solution to address the situation has proved to be both inadequate and subject to months of delay. The construction of a replacement water pipeline from the Don River that was launched in May 2023 provides a maximum of only 3.5 cubic meters (770 imperial, 920 US gallons) per second – 288 thousand cubic meters (63 million imperial, 76 million US gallons) per day – less than 10% of the previous flow rates, or as a spokesperson for the Voda Donbassa water company said “a teaspoonful in a large bowl of borscht.”
In addition, the reservoirs that service the regions are also falling fast and losses through leaks – as many as 2,000 a week – that the fighting prevents from being readily repaired all bring the supply problems to a critical situation.
The pro-Kremlin blogger Rybar, said to have links with the Russian Ministry of Defense writes: “The summer season and heat are once again exacerbating Donetsk’s chronic problem of recent years – water shortages and sewerage problems. Shelling and destruction of infrastructure have become a harsh reality for residents [of the Donbas].”
The Moscow Times gave examples of the worsening water shortage in the occupied territories, citing the situation in the town of Torez in the Gorlovka district of the Donetsk region. It was reported by the local branch of Voda Donbass that water is only available on every third day for eight hours and in surrounding villages every sixth day for no more than three hours or even less.
Local residents say that even then the water pressure is so low it often can’t reach those who live above the first floor and it’s often brackish and rust colored. To add insult to injury, the local authorities raised water tariffs from July 1.
Similar stories are being repeated in many areas of occupied Ukraine where the situation in Mariupol for instance has become even worse according to a March report by the Meduza outlet when the level in the Starokrymske Reservoir was at only 40% its original 47 million cubic meters capacity and falling with a plan to replenish it by redirecting water from the Pavlopilske Reservoir, located about 22 kilometers (13.5 miles) away, not due to come on line until 2027 at the earliest. As in Crimea the situation in the coastal city is made worse by a flood of Russian “incomers” attracted by the chance to buy up property at knock-down prices.