SIMFEROPOL, December 19. /TASS/. The fill rate of Crimean water reservoirs has almost doubled since last year and they are 100% full, Head of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov told TASS.

"We don’t have any problems with water right now, all the reservoirs are 100% full. The fill rate is almost twice the one last year. With these volumes, even not counting precipitation, Crimean residents have enough water for a year and a half," he said.

He noted that it is impossible to completely forecast weather conditions for a decade ahead but noted that now the peninsula has additional supply sources and will be able to cope with any difficulties.

The Crimean leader said that "shutting off water, moreover, for several days, is the last measure utilities workers use only when there are no other options" such as repairs of sections of the water supply network. In these cases, drinking water is supplied by specialized transportation. He specified that in 2021 alone, 30 kilometers of water pipelines were restored in Simferopol and another 28 are planned to be repaired this year.

In May 2014, Ukraine cut water supplies to Crimea from the Kherson Region via the North Crimean canal, which used to meet 90% of the peninsula’s demand. Since then, water demand has been supplied from local sources. The situation became critical in 2020 due to drought conditions. The situation improved in the summer of 2021 after heavy rains. In the course of the special military operation, the Russian army liberated the canal’s hydraulic engineering unit located in the Kherson Region.