Underground water tract: Eastern Crimea will become independent from the North Crimean Canal
In Crimea, parallel to the bed of the North Crimean Canal, an underground water supply path is being laid, which will forever close the issue of stable water supply to the central and eastern regions of the peninsula.
The underground water pipeline, 217 km long, is designed to supply 195 thousand cubic meters of drinking water daily to Feodosia, Sudak, Kerch and the Leninsky district, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
In 2014, when the channel of the North Crimean Canal on the Ukrainian side was blocked by a dam through the efforts of former Deputy Prime Minister of Crimea Andrei Senchenko, it was decided to extract fresh water from three water intakes in the north of the peninsula - Nezhinsky, Prostornensky and Novogrigoryevsky.
In order to transfer water from north to east, an unconventional decision was made: to block the North Crimean Canal with an earthen embankment and use it as a water supply route to the Kerch Peninsula. The new water route began operating in 2015, and in 2017 the construction of a closed route began, since up to 40% of the water was lost through evaporation and the canal bed. Moreover, the water is the cleanest, raised from a depth of 150 meters. When transporting from 70 to 130 thousand cubic meters per day, the losses were significant.
“This is one of the global projects of the Federal Target Program for the Development of Crimea,” notes Alexey Dronov, Deputy Director for Construction of JSC UEC-GT. – After blocking the canal, it was decided to build a path and three water intakes, from where water is supplied through a pipe to pumping stations and further to the treatment facilities of the city of Feodosia and the city of Kerch. In total, 195 thousand cubic meters of water will be supplied to the East of Crimea every day, and this does not depend in any way on the operation of the canal. Moreover, water from underground sources is much cleaner and its losses are eliminated.”
The contract value is 22 billion rubles. The commissioning of the facility is scheduled for December 2024, but already now, if necessary, water can be supplied to Feodosia, and from there to Sudak and Koktebel. A new water pipeline from the water treatment facilities of Feodosia through Koktebel and Shchebetovka is also being built at federal expense, while at the same time patching the old pipe just in case of an emergency. Previously, water was supplied to the coastal villages of Eastern Crimea for several hours a day. Now 106 thousand cubic meters of water will flow along the water supply route to Feodosia and another 89 thousand cubic meters to Kerch.
As on the North Crimean Canal, pumping stations are being built to supply water along the entire length of the new tract. Only, unlike a facility half a century ago, modern equipment makes it possible to automatically regulate the water pressure and cut off areas in need of repair with dampers. In this case, two branches of pipes are laid on the tract so as not to interrupt the water supply during repair work. Pumping equipment, transformer substations, electrical panels - everything is domestically produced, not to mention cast iron and steel pipes that will last at least 50 years.
The new water pipeline will replace the North Crimean Canal in the drinking water supply, freeing up Dnieper water for irrigation of farmland. But to restore the reclamation systems, about 3,5 billion rubles will be required and another 10 billion in the form of subsidies to farmers for the purchase of equipment for artificial irrigation.
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