They are digging around the clock: how they are going to let water from the Don into the Donbass

The new water conduit will connect the Rostov region and the DPR

Less than a month is left before the planned opening of a water conduit with a length of almost 200 kilometers, which will connect the Don River in the Rostov Region and the city of Donbass. The start of water supply is scheduled for April 1. “MK” learned why this project can be a real salvation for the DPR and what problems it can turn into for Don himself.

In February 2022, the situation with the water supply in the DPR seriously deteriorated. If earlier the volume of water entering the city was about 300-320 thousand cubic meters, then after the outbreak of hostilities it decreased to 40-50 thousand cubic meters – due to the blocking of access by the Ukrainian side to the Northern Donetsk River.

In addition, the inhabitants of the republic were waiting for a “gift” from the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the form of communications damaged by shelling, which only aggravated the general crisis. Ukrainian troops destroyed a key pumping station in Maiorsk, pumping water from the Seversky Donets River into a canal that supplies water to much of the region.

The problem was so serious that Donetsk residents began to collect water from puddles on the streets, as well as drain it from radiators in apartments.

The head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, admitted to a difficult situation. “We see that the Seversky Donets canal is not being freed as quickly as we would like,” the official told reporters, “And we need water already yesterday. This is why we have problems with heating. We now live in this format, when the water is once every three days – and even then not everywhere, taking into account gusts and other things.

Reservoirs save Donetsk residents, but their reserves are not eternal, and, according to experts, may soon come to an end. Therefore, they decided to correct the situation with the help of water from the Don.

The construction of the water conduit began in December last year, more than 2.5 thousand military builders and more than a thousand pieces of military equipment are working around the clock to lay pipes. The project consists of laying two lines of the main pipeline, each of which is 200 km long, as well as the construction of electrical substations, pumping stations and water storage facilities for 10,000 cubic meters. The plan also provides for the construction of 63 road and railroad crossings and water barriers.

In the DPR, the pipeline is eagerly awaited. “Part of the districts of the city are periodically without water,” Oleg, a resident of Gorlovka, told MK, “Local residents conduct a “roll call” on social networks, finding out where there is water supply and where it is not. The water supply has been reduced by 30 – 50% compared to pre-war times, and the townspeople go to special points for drinking water, or its cars are transported around the city for free. There are notices on the houses telling when and where this water can be obtained. Even text messages come to the phone, so people are waiting for the plumbing to start working. We hope that at least some of our problems will be solved.”

“We have a big problem with boiler houses, just a disaster,” says Irina, a resident of Donetsk. – Accident rate of heating systems is almost 100%. Central districts sit without heating, and residents periodically drain water from radiators. Therefore, we need a new source of water supply, like air.”

However, this project also has a downside. Residents of the Dugino farm in the Rostov region, where the water conduit originates from, are worried that the construction can “finish off” the already shallow Don, but there is so little water in the village itself and it comes from taps of far from the best quality . .

“There is no water not only in Dugino, but also on the island in the village of Elizavetinskaya (Azov district) near Dugino,” writes a local resident. – There is also no water in Rogozhkino and other villages. Live as you wish.”