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Without victory the problem cannot be solved. Will Donetsk be given water for the New Year?
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.

One young woman in the Donbas I follow on V Kontakte speaks of having to use a soup ladle to collect enough water to bathe in. Her situation won't improve until Slavyansk is under Russian control.
by Kirill Velesov

[REGNUM] One of the main gifts for the residents of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) for the New Year should be water, which will finally flow uninterruptedly into the homes of the frontline region of Russia around the clock during the holidays.

In any case, this is the promise made by the First Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Republic, Andrei Chertkov, during a direct line.

According to him, the residents of the DPR have to make do with a quantity of water that is two or even two and a half times less than what is needed for normal life. And if during the year the situation with water supply was more or less tolerable for the war-hardened residents of Donbass, then by the end of December the water supply schedules had been reduced even more.

Currently, water reaches the districts of the republic's capital every other day at best.

The main operator of the republican water supply, the State Unitary Enterprise "Voda Donbassa", warned Donetsk residents about this in an SMS the other day, although residents of some areas of Donetsk report that their already meager water supply was cut off even earlier. At the same time, local authorities are calling on residents of Donetsk and Makeyevka to urgently stock up on water.

As Aleksandr, a resident of Donetsk's Kalininsky district, told a Regnum correspondent, his district now receives water on even days starting at 17:00. However, the brown liquid that flows in a thin stream from the taps can only be called water conditionally.

The whole point is that during the downtime, the pipes oxidize without regular pressure in the system and primarily produce an aqueous solution of rust.

Those lucky enough to live on the first floors of apartment buildings have every chance of draining the cloudy substance and waiting for relatively clean water.

According to Alexander, in his building, residents of the fifth and sixth floors may not receive water at all. Although the established schedule provides for water supply from 17:00 to 22:00, the weak pressure does not reach the upper floors.

However, as previously reported by IA Regnum, residents of the mining village of Lidievka in the Kirovsky district have been living without water for two years, relying on rain and volunteers who do not allow them to die of thirst.

Surprisingly, Donetsk residents say that there are places in their city where water flows regularly.

The reason for this is that houses in such "anomalous" zones are located near main water supply systems. But this is an exception that does not affect the overall sad picture.

WHERE IS THE WATER?
According to the official version, the reason for the water crisis was that during the summer-autumn period, not enough water accumulated in the reservoirs of Donbass.

And until the territory of the DPR is liberated from the Ukrainian occupiers up to Slavyansk, where the main water pipeline of the region, the Seversky Donets-Donbass Canal, created back in the 50s of the last century, begins, water will not be able to flow to Donetsk.

The Don-Donbass Canal, built in record time, in four months, is 194 kilometers long and has a capacity of about 300,000 cubic meters, although it helps Donbass not to finally turn into the dehydrated planet Arrakis from Frank Herbert's science fiction saga "Dune", but it cannot fully satisfy the needs of the republic.

Meanwhile, the waterways of Donbass, which have not seen repairs for a long time, continue to burst.

On December 28 alone, utility workers eliminated 258 accidents in water supply and sewerage networks. Unstable pressure in the system is detrimental to pipelines.

And it is not possible to eliminate accidents immediately. The reason is the lack of human resources.

The issue of a shortage of skilled labor in the republic is acute, even despite the patronage assistance of Russian regions, said Yuriy Leonov, deputy of the People's Council of the Donetsk People's Republic and chairman of the People's Council committee on agro-industrial complex and land relations, in a commentary to IA Regnum.

Rusty water also hits the pockets of Russian citizens in the DPR.

As previously reported by IA Regnum, people whose houses are not equipped with meters have to pay for water that is not available. The moratorium on water supply payments, introduced by the head of the DPR in March 2022, was lifted in August of this year. After that, consumers began to receive bills with astronomical amounts.

Donetsk resident Olga, whose parents live in Svetlodarsk, 30 kilometers from Artemovsk, told the Regnum news agency that they are forced to pay for dirty water, which is already supplied irregularly, as if it were drinking water.

The DPR authorities acknowledge the problem.

The current standards are excessively high, and Donetsk officials should review them as early as January next year, Chertkov assured. Currently, the water standard per person per day in apartment buildings can reach 300 liters.

Heavy fighting is taking place on the territory of the republic. And it is especially difficult with water in the cities and towns of Donbass recently liberated from the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

For example, in Avdeevka, where about a thousand residents remain, people were saved throughout the war by wells in the old part of the city, said volunteer and journalist Yulia Andrienko.

In Selidovo, the Ukrainian Armed Forces mined wells and approaches to water wells before retreating. As a result of an explosion near one of them, according to local residents, 12 people were killed.

There will be water. Alas, not for everyone.

Despite all the difficulties, residents of the republic will hear the long-awaited hissing in the taps on New Year's Eve. According to Andrey Chertkov, the head of the DPR ordered utility workers to provide round-the-clock water supply on December 30 and 31 of this year, as well as on January 1, 2025.

"Perhaps a small reserve will be formed now and there will be enough water during the New Year holidays. But, unfortunately, not everyone will have water. The problems are caused by the fact that many utilities have not changed for decades. In some places, the technological opening is several millimeters. It is necessary to apply high pressure so that the water reaches the upper floors, and because of this, it begins to burst in other places," explained Yuri Leonov.

However, major repairs were carried out in some areas, but the volume of work required throughout the republic is enormous. The deterioration of water supply and sanitation systems is 90%.

"The employees of the water utility, who work as dispatchers, are now taking on a large portion of negativity. But this is the situation, and the mobilization of society must be colossal. There is no way to tell people that everything will be fine. But it is also impossible to claim that the authorities of the republic are doing nothing," noted the deputy of the People's Council of the DPR.

The Donbass industry has been absorbing water resources in huge quantities since the beginning of industrial development of the region in the 19th century. In Soviet times, the problem of water supply was generally solved, now, after all the trials and tribulations, the residents of Donbass need to wait for the final liberation of the region so that the water problem becomes a thing of the past.


Posted by: badanov 2024-12-31
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=732935