About 14 million Ukrainians have problems with access to water

According to Mykhailo Yatsyuk, director of the Institute of Water Problems and Reclamation, currently about 14 million Ukrainians do not have normal access to water in the conditions of the criminal war waged by Russia against Ukraine.

What is known about the problems of millions of Ukrainians with access to water

Yatsyuk noted that due to the war launched by Russia against Ukraine, about 14 million Ukrainians currently do not have normal access to drinking water due to the proximity of the areas of hostilities and inadequate sanitary conditions.

Due to Russian aggression, according to our estimates, 14 million people have problems with access to water and sanitation. Humanitarian disasters such as the one in Mariupol will worsen, taking into account man-made threats of pollution, and also taking into account that the level of access to water and sanitation in the war zone and even nearby territories is very low, – Yatsyuk warns.

What is known about the challenges in the sphere of protection of water resources of Ukraine

He emphasized that in the conditions of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, the transformation of the economy was carried out, the resettlement of certain categories of Ukrainian citizens and industrial enterprises, which increased the load on water resources.

In addition, the director of the Institute of Water Problems and Reclamation reminded of the impact of the explosion of the Kakhovskaya HPP on the water supply system of the eastern and southern regions.

Due to the explosion of the Kakhovska HPP, 4 million people do not have a permanent water supply. These are Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhіa, Mykolaiv, Donetsk regions and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. And now our institute and other scientists are working on solving this problem, looking for new sources of water supply. One of such reserves can be the Danube and Polissia, if it is made a water regulator, as it was before, – the expert notes.