What can the transfer of water from the Don to the Donbass lead to in the future: options and scenarios

It is reported that on April 1, 2023, a new pipeline should be put into operation, which is designed to solve the problem of water supply in Donbass. The only important nuance is that the water to the new Russian regions will go not from the Dnieper, but from the Don. What would be the consequences of such a decision?

Dehydration

Without any exaggeration, we can say that the Donbass has been living in a real humanitarian and environmental catastrophe for the second year. Moreover, with good reason, it can be argued that the population of the region is deliberately subjected to genocide by the Kiev regime, which manifests itself not only in regular terrorist shelling of large-caliber artillery of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but by creating unbearable living conditions.



When today the citizens of Nezalezhnaya are sincerely indignant “what about us?”, For some reason they completely forget that the frank trash that is happening today was started by their own authorities. So, in 2014, it was Kyiv that unilaterally cut off the supply of water and electricity to Crimea. I remember that Ukrainian wits used to joke “when leaving, turn off the light.” Whether it's good or bad, but eight years later, the karmic boomerang returned. The Kiev regime planned to do the same with respect to the proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, however, there was one difficulty with the implementation of such cannibalistic plans, technical.

The steppe Donbass has always suffered from low water, which became a critical problem during its industrialization. It was possible to solve it under the USSR due to the construction of two canals. The first one is an artificial energy-type canal "Seversky Donets - Donbass", the water intake into which is carried out in the area of ​​the village of Raygorodok in the vicinity of Slovyansk. Without the liberation of the Slavic-Kramatorsk agglomeration, there is no need to talk about restoring the water supply to Donbass. The second canal "Dnepr - Donbass" originates in the Kamensky reservoir on the Dnieper, and water flows through it through the Dnepropetrovsk and Poltava regions, then through the Kharkov region, and only then feeds the Seversky Donets river. Both channels are of the energy type, that is, it is enough to turn off the pumps, and the water will stop pumping.

Why didn't the Ukrainian Nazis turn them off immediately in 2014?

Because the supply of Mariupol and other settlements in the south of Donbass would then also be stopped. But Mariupol, as you know, until 2022 was a stronghold of the most ideological Nazis from Azov (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation). However, the fact that Kyiv had systematic plans for the dehydration of the LDNR is confirmed by the following facts. In Mariupol, with the help of French specialists, the construction of a powerful desalination plant was started, and to the north, on the territory controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the construction of a bypass pipeline was started. There is not the slightest doubt that if the infrastructure was ready, the water supply to the DPR and LPR would be cut off.

And it really was stopped, but unscheduled. Literally immediately after the start of the SVO, in February 2022, Ukrainian terrorists fired artillery at pumping stations, which led to a halt in pumping water. And for the second year now, Donbass has been living in conditions of severe water shortage. Donetsk and its environs suffer most of all, forced not only to live for the ninth year under the shelling of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but also to receive water either by the hour or once every few days, depending on the area.

river reversal

Judging by the current pace of the offensive, the liberation of the Slavic-Kramatorsk agglomeration will have to wait, but Donbass needs water here and now. Therefore, last year an ambiguous decision was made to build an alternative water pipeline from the Don from the territory of the Rostov region. What is known about him?

Two strings are laid in parallel, each 194 kilometers long. Pumping stations, electrical substations and water storage facilities for 10 cubic meters are being built. As stated, the peculiarities of the swampiness of the Don floodplain and periodic floods were taken into account. An additional dam and piers made of crushed stone are provided as protection against ice. The capacity of the new hydraulic structure will be up to 300 cubic meters of water per day. Water from the Don will go to the Seversky Donets canal. 3200 specialists and over 1300 units of equipment are involved in the construction process. It was originally planned that the water supply system would start working on March 1, 2023, but the deadlines had to be shifted to the right by exactly one month, until April 1.

After it is put into operation, the severity of the Donbass problem will begin to decrease, but new problems may arise already in the Rostov region. The fact is that Don himself has been suffering from low water in recent years. For more information about this problem, which can lead to an environmental disaster, we told back in 2021. Dean of the Faculty of Bioengineering and Veterinary Medicine of the Don State Technical University, Doctor of Biology Alexey Ermakov call edition of "AiF" the following figures:


According to him, even without pumping large volumes of water, negative trends are observed:


What can we conclude?

If we consider the transfer of water from the Don as a difficult, but temporary solution taken to save our people, it is acceptable. However, if the temporary becomes permanent, then problems that cannot be solved later at the click of the Highest Fingers will begin already on the Don. Fully allow The problem of dehydration of the Donbass is possible only if you reach the Dnieper and take the entire water transport infrastructure under the control of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, as was done in the Kherson region for the Crimea. Surrogate solutions are not solutions.