Ukraine has not supplied water to LPR from water intakes under its control for almost three weeks, Luganskvoda state-owned water supply enterprise press service told Lugansk Media Centre.
“Petrovskiy pumping station halted supply on 6 March and Western water treatment plant on 5 May,” Luganskvoda press service said.
Ukraine said the supply had been stopped due to maintenance and the outstanding electricity debt of the Popasnaya duct to Lugansk Energy Association. LPR envoy to Minsk talks Vladislav Deinego said Ukraine was doing everything not to take LPR payments for the water.
Ukraine cut water supply to the Lugansk People’s Republic from West Water Treatment Plant (ZFS) by nearly 85 percent without giving reasons on 4 May, and fully stopped it on 5 May. In previous incidents, Ukraine stopped water supply to LPR from Petrovskiy intake without notification on 6 March.
Earlier, LPR head Igor Plotnitskiy said the Republic and Ukraine had essentially settled the issue of water supply from Kiev-controlled territory. He said the problem (of water supply from Kiev-controlled territory) would gradually diminish as LPR authorities were taking measures to pump water locally using the existing capacities.
Despite existing accords, Kiev has repeatedly blocked water supply to the Republic from its water intakes since the beginning of this year.
Kiev supplies water to LPR territory via two main sources – West water treatment plant ZFS (Lisichansk area) and Petrovskiy duct (Stanitsa Luganskaya area). In case ZFS is shut off or significantly reduces the feed, Stakhanov, Kirovsk, Bryanka, Pervomaisk, Krasniy Luch, Antratsit and Alchevsk face a dramatic depletion of water supply. Lugansk and its Kamennobrodskiy district in particular mostly depend on Petrovskiy water pipe.
State water company Luganskvoda reported that the Republic was provided with 72 percent of the water it needed by the end of August 2016 with 84 percent contribution from its own sources, Ukraine’s input was reduced to 15 percent. Until 12 May 2014 overall 258 thousand cubic meters of water were supplied daily to the towns that are currently located in LPR, 132 thousand cubic meters were pumped from local sources. Until the beginning of December 2016, 40-50 thousand cubic meters were fed from Kiev-controlled territories daily and 260 thousand cubic meters were pumped locally by LuganskVoda.