Rivers in reverse: Engineers plan water supply guarantees for threatened, thirsty Crimea

ABAKAN, April 16 (Itar-Tass) - Two rivers will be reversed to guarantee water flow to Crimea, supply said to be threatened by Ukrainian action. RusHydro, Russia's largest water company, plans to make them run into the North Crimean Canal, chief executive Yevgeny Dod told reporters. The waterway is a multi-branch land-improvement irrigation source for the Kherson region of southern Ukraine and Crimea, built between 1961 and 1971 and subject to territorial claims by Russia and Ukraine. Crimea currently depends 80 percent on water supply from Ukraine running along the canal, according to Sergei Donskoi, head of Russia's Ministry of Nature Resources. But Ukraine cut canal water supply to Crimea threefold, said Crimea's First Deputy Premier, Rustam Temirgaliyev earlier. “At present, the volume of water supply is 16 cubic metres per second or three times below the norm of 50 cubic metres. Only thanks to a technical decision have we found Kiev cannot cut supply altogether,” Temirgaliyev said. RusHydro is to draft proposals on supplying Crimea around the end of April. Company engineers plan visits to energy-generating facilities in Crimea to make proposals on powering the system, said chief executive Dod. Twenty-three sources of drinking, mineral and thermal waters exist in Crimea, Donskoi said. But, he explained, "Modern methods have not been adequate to study reserves on the peninsula. No-one has looked into water sources at deep underground horizons in Crimea. In the Soviet era, digging a canal was easier than prospecting for underground waters as an alternative source of drinking water." Learn more on itar-tass.com