Kostenko proposes to bill Crimea for Dnieper water - more than $2 billion per year
Simferopol, May 29 (Navigator, Evgeniy Andreev) – The difference in the price of one cubic meter of Dnieper water for Crimea within Ukraine and as part of the Russian Federation should be thousands of times.
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Former Minister of Environmental Protection, leader of the UNP Yuriy Kostenko writes about this in the Kyiv newspaper “Young Ukraine”.
In the world, he notes, various systems for calculating the cost of water are practiced - they are calculated per 1 cubic meter of water consumed, per 1 hectare of irrigated land.
“Ukrainian water in Crimea is used for both water supply and irrigation. Without claiming absolute accuracy, how much Ukraine should set the cost of Dnieper water, we can give approximate estimated figures.
For irrigation in Crimea, exclusively Dnieper water is used. Crimean farmers paid 40-80 kopecks per cubic meter for it (including the cost of the water itself). However, this price is far from objective reality. For comparison, in Holland 1 cubic meter of water for growing greenhouse crops costs more than $1,3,” explains the Kiev expert
Russian Crimea, he is convinced, must pay for water at world prices:
“According to European standards, Ukraine is one of the countries with the lowest level of water supply. In different countries, these norms range from 2,5 thousand cubic meters to 5 thousand cubic meters of water per person more. Ukrainians consume 1350 thousand cubic meters of water per person per year. By giving the Dnieper water to Crimea, we further reduced the water supply to the continental part by 1%. Based on the fact that water availability is low, the price of Ukrainian water can be very high,” writes Kostenko.
According to rough estimates, he adds, “just for 360 thousand hectares of irrigated land, Crimea can be billed from 200 million to more than 2 billion dollars a year.”
“Why such a wide price range? The fact is that the price of water is calculated depending on the goal of the water supplier. Even a quick analysis of the cost of water supply in Europe shows that in any case, Dnieper water is a very expensive pleasure for Crimea. This is the case if we are talking about Crimea as an independent state or an integral part of another state,” the ex-minister clarifies.
If we consider Crimea as part of Ukraine, Kostenko emphasizes, then we get a completely different arithmetic:
“After all, in this case, the goal of the state is not to benefit from another state, but to comprehensively balance environmental and economic development in all its territories. Therefore, the difference in the price of one cubic meter of Crimean water within Ukraine and for part of another country is thousands of times. This is world practice. And Crimea in its current status needs to focus on European approaches in calculating the cost of water for water supply and irrigation and on calculations based on world prices,” states Yuriy Kostenko.
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