In a couple of months, the Crimean fields will turn into desert, - Kiev expert
Simferopol, June 12 (Navigator, Evgeny Andreev) – The closure of the North Crimean Canal means a dead end for the agricultural sector of Crimea.
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Doctor of Geographical Sciences, member of the Public Council under the State Agency for Water Resources, Viktor Vishnevsky, stated this in an interview with the Kyiv newspaper “Young Ukraine”.
He believes that nothing good will happen in the water sector of Crimea, at least in the coming years:
“Until recently, the water management complex of Crimea was one of the most advanced, and not only in Ukraine. Nothing like this has been created in Russia. Just imagine the length of the North Crimean Canal - 400,5 km! In its main part it is capable of passing almost 300 cubic meters of water. This is approximately as much as the Desna River carries. In winter, when the canal is not working, water was supplied from bulk reservoirs, which were filled in advance. All this extremely complex management was carried out by the canal administration, located near the Kakhovsky reservoir in the city of Tavriysk. Now, without proper management and maintenance, it is impossible to ensure the operation of the water management complex, which was formed on the basis of the PKK,” the expert noted.
And the worst, he predicts, is yet to come:
“Since the irrigation season in Crimea has practically been disrupted, in just two months most of the Crimean fields will become like a desert. In turn, thousands of people will be left without a means of subsistence, and this will lead to an increase in crime. It is possible to foresee the spread of theft of hydraulic structures, pipelines, and sprinklers, which was observed in the 90s. In just a few years, all that goodness that worked like a clock will only be memories,” the Ukrainian scientist is confident.
In his opinion, the authorities in Moscow and Simferopol are making crazy plans for water supply to the isolated peninsula.
“Crimea has long had problems with water, and it is no coincidence that they were solved by building a canal. There are simply no other ways. It’s unpleasant to even hear ridiculous ideas about transferring water from Kuban. This water, in principle, can be taken, but transporting it to the northern part of Crimea, where the main crops of rice and vegetables are concentrated, is unrealistic. The idea of desalinating seawater is also unrealistic. This requires a lot of energy, which, as we know, Crimea lacks. Transporting water by ship is also nonsense, because even a very large tanker can take on board 100 thousand cubic meters. Crimea annually needs one billion cubic meters, or 10 thousand sailings of such a tanker,” the expert states.
Thus, there is practically no way out for the dehydrated Russian Crimea:
“There is a dead end. But did the Kremlin leadership think about the population of Crimea? Of course not. Politicians, of course, have other thoughts in their heads. Undoubtedly, many Crimeans have already realized that water is of great value and it is impossible to replace it with propaganda,” argues Viktor Vishnevsky.
In a couple of months, Crimean fields will turn into a desert, says a Kyiv expert.