Prosecutors and officers from Ukraine’s SBU state security service have found and blocked a hidden pipe supplying water from Kherson Oblast to Russian-annexed Crimea.
The 25-30 centimeter diameter plastic pipe, hidden under grass, led from a well located just in 15 meters from the border between Russian-occupied Crimea and the rest of Ukraine, the Prosecutors Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, which is currently based in Kyiv and Kherson, reported on Sept. 26.
The pipe led to the Crimean Titan chemical plant, located just a few miles from the separation line, and most likely was constructed before Russian annexed Crimea in March 2014, the report said.
The 25-30 centimeter diameter plastic pipe, hidden under grass, led from a well located just in 15 meters from the border between Russian-occupied Crimea and the rest of Ukraine. (ark.gp.gov.ua)
The arid land of Crimea was largely dependent on water supplied from mainland Ukraine’s Dnipro River via the 400-kilometer-long canal. In 2017, Ukraine completely cut water supplies to the peninsula by damming the canal. This has already had devastating consequences for agriculture in Crimea.
Crimean Titan, which is the largest manufacturer of titanium dioxide pigment in Eastern Europe, is also an intensive user of water.
The plant emitted a large acid leak in late August, polluting parts of the city of Armyansk in the north of Crimea and some villages in nearby Kherson Oblast. Environmentalists say the accident could be linked to a shortage of water, which the plant uses to dilute the acid it uses to wash titanium ore.
Ukrainian law enforcement revealed that the pipe they found supplied the plant with about 250 cubic meters of water per hour. They are now looking for those in Kherson Oblast who were involved in arranging the illegal water supplies.
“The Prosecutors Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea is now tracing the people who could be involved in hidden and unregistered water supply,” the report said.
