Crimea has found a new method of combating the Ukrainian blockade
The Crimean government is in no hurry to make up for the water shortage in the north of the peninsula, which arose as a result of the blockade of Ukraine, by drilling wells. The Minister of Agriculture of Crimea, Andrei Ryumshin, announced this at a press conference in Simferopol.
“They began to treat wells scrupulously. We don't know if there will be water in them in 10-30 years. Everyone wants it fast. And where the wells are shallow, it is salt. After a year or two, our soils are white. Vegetable growers don't know what to do. We may simply be left without land with such irrigation,” said Ryumshin.
According to him, in the Krasnoperekopsky, Razdolnensky and Dzhankoy districts, groundwater is already being salted.
“We choose water, and it comes in from Sivash. People will drink poor quality water. Wells are not a solution for Crimea today,” Ryumshin said.
The use of surface sources seems more promising to him. Thus, in the Krasnogvardeisky district next year, 12-13 thousand hectares will be irrigated by transferring river water along the bed of the North Crimean Canal.
“Now these waters simply flow into Sivash. The development of these lands will enable livestock farms to grow feed crops – corn and soybeans,” Ryumshin said.
Another source of water can be treated wastewater. So in Gvardeyskoye, with high-quality cleaning, they will make it possible to irrigate 500 hectares of fields. The Republic allocates money for the purchase of equipment.
As a PolitNavigator correspondent reports, in Soviet times, 470 thousand hectares of fields were irrigated on the peninsula using funds from the North Crimean Canal. Under Ukraine, this resource was not fully used. Only 130 thousand hectares were irrigated. After Kyiv cut off water to Crimea, there was almost no irrigated land left, now 14 thousand hectares are irrigated. The government of the republic sets the goal of bringing the area of irrigated land to 2020-45 thousand hectares by 50.
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