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Hydroeconomic Problems of Crimea and Their Solutions

The article characterizes the hydroeconomic situation in Crimea. It is necessary to solve both the problems that have accumulated in the water industry and the new ones emerged from the Ukrainian government's political decisions as a reaction to the reunification of Crimea with Russia. We describe the socio-economic and environmental impacts of a deliberately created water supply shortage. In this paper, we analyzed the ways to ease hydroeconomic tensions and related problems and examined premium water supply measures in Crimea and their implementation results, as well as development programs for the region. The study showed that by redistributing local water resources (river runoff and groundwater) over the territory, the government can ensure the supply of drinking and domestic water in Crimea. However, the region still experiences a problem with agricultural water since it does not have resources sufficient to develop irrigation farming. Large reserves for increasing water resources arise from a reduction of their losses (in housing and communal sector, and during land reclamation) and rational water use (especially by reducing/eliminating the use of clean drinking water for technical needs). We believe that the major way to decrease water shortage and satisfy the needs of agriculture and industry is to desalinate seawater. International experience proves this water supply method is efficient.

Vasilenko V. A. vasil@ieie.nsc.ru

Keywords: Crimea water supply shortage socio-economic and environmental impacts ways to ease hydroeconomic tensions premium water supply measures development programs