SEVASTOPOL, April 21./ITAR-TASS/. A stock of fresh water supplies to last Sevastopol, a city with a special status on the Crimean peninsula, for at least five more months, Dmitry Belik, an acting chair of the municipal administration, said on Monday.
Belik said supplies of fresh water would be provided by the Chernorechensky Water Reservoir, which has a total capacity of 64 million cubic meters of water and as of now has accumulated 33 million cubic meters.
“We hope that the weather will have a mercy on us, there will be rains and the reservoir will be constantly refilling,” the official told journalists.
The Chernorechensky Water Reservoir provides with water about 70% of the Sevastopol’s population and stable water supplies are ensured with not less than 45-50% occupancy of the reservoir’s total capacity volume.
The issue of water supplies remains among the top priorities for Crimea’s full integration into Russia’s federal space. Besides the option of stretching a water pipe across the bed of the Kerch Strait, there is also a possibility to explore groundwater deposits in the northern part of the peninsula. Crimea used to heavily on water supplies delivered by the North-Crimean Canal.
Crimea’s First Vice-Premier, Rustam Temirgaliyev, told journalists last week that Kiev had reduced water supplies to Crimea through the canal from 50 cubic metres to 16 cubic metres per second.
The multiple-branch canal was built in 1961-1971 for irrigation and watering of the Kherson Oblast in southern Ukraine and Crimea. The canal starts from the Kakhovka Reservoir and stretches out to the city of Kerch on the eastern coast of Crimea.
The Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, a city with a special status on the Crimean peninsula, where most residents are Russians, signed reunification deals with Russia on March 18 after a referendum two days earlier in which an overwhelming majority of Crimeans voted to secede from Ukraine and join Russia.