Residents of Mykolaiv get clean water from a distribution station set up by the International Committee of the Red Cross on October 1.
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Residents of Mykolaiv get clean water from a distribution station set up by the International Committee of the Red Cross on October 1.
Jason Beaubien / NPR
MYKOLAIV, Ukraine – The city of Mykolaiv, southern Ukraine is besieged by water. The Buh River winds around the shipyard before emptying into the Black Sea. But ever since a Russian missile broke two pipes supplying the city with clean water, on the same day in mid-April, residents of Mykolaiv have been struggling to access clean water.
Ukrainian officials say the attack was a deliberate and successful attempt to cut off the city’s water supply. Huge pipelines carry water more than 40 miles from the Dnipro River into the city’s pumping stations.
The building that houses the Mykolaiv regional government, which was bombed early in the war, lies in ruins on September 29. Governor Vitaliy Kim said he knew he was the target “because it was his window.” me” and said he survived being late for work. day. Thirty-seven of his colleagues died in the bombing.
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The building that houses the Mykolaiv regional government, which was bombed early in the war, lies in ruins on September 29. Governor Vitaliy Kim said he knew he was the target “because it was his window.” me” and said he survived being late for work. day. Thirty-seven of his colleagues died in the bombing.
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The problem Mykolaiv faces now is that these pipelines stretch through territory that Russian forces occupied shortly after their February invasion of Ukraine. Russia still controls that area, making it impossible for city workers to repair broken pipes.
Before the war, Mykolaiv was a city of about half a million inhabitants. Officials now estimate that about half of that number remains. For the past five months, residents have been drawing clean water from tank trucks and water distribution points established by the city and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
New normal in Mykolaiv
At a series of faucets set up on a sidewalk in downtown Mykolaiv, 58-year-old Natalie Rosental is tying two large plastic water bottles to the rack of her 10-speed bike.
Natalie Rosental, 58, leaves a water distribution station in Mykolaiv on October 1. She cycles more than a mile a day to collect water for her family.
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Natalie Rosental, 58, leaves a water distribution station in Mykolaiv on October 1. She cycles more than a mile a day to collect water for her family.
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Rosental said she cycled just over a mile a day to fetch water for her family. “I’m used to it!” she said cheerfully. “It’s good exercise.”
Most businesses have closed in Mykolaiv. Missiles hit the city almost every day. Getting water has become a daily chore, but Vitali Kim, regional military manager, says people simply do with it.
“We have no choice,” he said. “We are trying to live our lives together in such difficult circumstances.”
A man looks at a residential building damaged after shelling in Mykolaiv on October 1. A woman died in the attack.
Genya Savilov / AFP via Getty Images
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A man looks at a residential building damaged after shelling in Mykolaiv on October 1. A woman died in the attack.
Genya Savilov / AFP via Getty Images
ICRC transports water to several locations in tanker trucks and then stores it in galvanized tanks. Residents of all ages bring plastic bottles of all sizes to fill at the faucets. There are young men. How old are women. The men loaded buckets of water into cars.
There are now more than 70 water supply points set up on the streets of Mykolaiv. One of the largest ICRC stations has 10 landmarks. Others are just hoses dangling from the back of a tanker truck.
Volunteers distribute water from the back of a delivery truck on the sidewalk in Mykolaiv on Monday.
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Volunteers distribute water from the back of a delivery truck on the sidewalk in Mykolaiv on Monday.
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No real alternatives
Borys Dudenko, general manager of the Mykolaiv Water Supply Company, said it would be relatively easy to repair the pipes that the Russians blew up in April – but his maintenance workers could not cross the front lines to perform the work.
“We were trying to get an agreement that would allow us to repair the water lines,” he said. “We have asked the Red Cross, the United Nations, to enter into negotiations with both sides. But unfortunately, there are no negotiations. Everything has failed.”
Concerned about the public health risk of not even having water for toilets, city officials sought a solution. Dudenko said building new pipelines from the Buh River to the west of the city is an attractive prospect, but would be expensive and take months. They have no money or time.
Water tanks with clean water are delivered by truck at a kindergarten in Mykolaiv, which is now home to people fleeing the occupied Kherson region.
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Water tanks with clean water are delivered by truck at a kindergarten in Mykolaiv, which is now home to people fleeing the occupied Kherson region.
Jason Beaubien / NPR
Instead, they decided that their best option was to tap into an existing industrial pipeline that was pulling water out of an estuary in the Black Sea.
“However, the amount of salt in this water is almost the same as in the real sea,” he said. “That’s why we have so many problems with this water. We call it ‘aggressive water’.” It damages steel pipes, pumps and other equipment. “
This “aggressive water” now flowing through the city’s pipes is yellow, salty, and smells a bit like a swamp. Residents say they don’t even wash their dishes with it.
Relying on the army’s southern attack
Dudenko says the water company is in a difficult position. Ukraine’s southern military offensive could soon regain control of the pipeline. But otherwise, Mykolaiv is facing a winter of people fetching and transporting water through the frozen streets of the city. And Dudenko said that every day salt water runs through Mykolaiv’s system, it corrodes the pumps and pipes.
He said they were working on building an alternative viaduct, and hoped Ukraine’s military progress would make that unnecessary.
And not everyone is as excited about Mykolaiv’s water condition as Natalie Rosental, who sees it as exercise.
Galina Telukh, 62, brings drinking water back to her apartment the morning after the top floor of her apartment building was hit by a Russian missile. She said the water running through the pipes is salty now and she won’t even wash her clothes in it.
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Galina Telukh, 62, brings drinking water back to her apartment the morning after the top floor of her apartment building was hit by a Russian missile. She said the water running through the pipes is salty now and she won’t even wash her clothes in it.
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“The water is salty and has a bad smell,” says Galina Telukh, describing the water coming out of her faucet. “We couldn’t even wash our clothes in there.”
Telukh was carrying four bottles of drinking water that she had just received from a humanitarian aid distribution center. Telukh’s apartment building was hit by a Russian missile the night before, killing one resident.
A man fills a water bottle from a fountain in Mykolaiv on October 1. The fountain was built in the late 18th century at Prince Grigory Potemkin’s summer palace. Some residents say it is still good to drink, but others only use it for cooking and cleaning.
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A man fills a water bottle from a fountain in Mykolaiv on October 1. The fountain was built in the late 18th century at Prince Grigory Potemkin’s summer palace. Some residents say it is still good to drink, but others only use it for cooking and cleaning.
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“I wish them all death, all Russians,” she said. She suggests that poisoning might be a good method.
“I’m very angry with [Russian President Vladimir] “Why would the Russian people let him do this to us?
