Ukrainians who heavily depended on the Kakhovka dam for fresh water face an uncertain future as supplies dwindle.
The village of Hrushivka and its 4,000 inhabitants are struggling to remain optimistic after the Kakhovka dam collapsed in Kherson, south Ukraine on 6 June.
“We will not give up and solve the problem, but it will probably take years,” said one resident.
Hrushivka heavily depended on the Kakhovka Reservoir for its water needs, now empty after the dam burst.
The local government has set up a collection point in a former cafe to distribute drinking water to the local residents but existing resources are running low.
“We took water from the Kakhovka water reservoir,” farmer Volodymyr Igolnik said.
“Now we brought all this hardware, to pump it up somehow. For example, I need 40-50 cubic metres of water per day for the hectare of greenhouses that I have, so everything is run by technology.”
Igolnik predominantly grows cucumbers in his greenhouses, but the vegetable contains 90 per cent water and can’t be grown without it. Igolnik fears he has to reduce production to keep his farm going.
While Volodymyr is struggling to supply water to the wider fields, the smaller farms in the village are also concerned. Svetlana Varavina and her husband dug a several-metre-deep pool in the garden, covered it with films, and filled it with water.
“We understood that there would be no water, and my husband and his son dug a hole,” Svetlana Varavina explained.
“Creating another drinking water basin would be very expensive. But we want to grow our own tomatoes, vegetables are very expensive now. We want to have them both for ourselves and our children.”
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