The water blockade of Crimea is unacceptable. This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the talks with the Secretary General of the Council of Europe (CE) Maria Peichinovich-Burich on Monday, October 19.
According to him, the situation around the water blockade of Crimea violates both European and universal conventions, TASS reports. This also violates the recommendation made in 2016 by the CE secretary general’s special representative Gerard Studman, who visited Crimea, Lavrov added.
“One of his recommendations was the need to immediately respond to the problem of supplying Crimea with water,” Lavrov said on Monday at a press conference following talks with the CE secretary general.
Earlier on Monday, it became known that Crimea will receive about 50 billion rubles for the modernization of the water supply system, the bulk of the funds will be allocated from the federal budget.
Since the beginning of September, in Simferopol and 39 settlements of the Simferopol and Bakhchisarai regions, the third stage of water supply restrictions has begun due to drought and the shallowing of the Ayan, Partizansky and Simferopol reservoirs. It was noted that 29 settlements switched to hourly water supply and water supply.
The main rivers of Crimea are dry or shallow due to prolonged drought. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry announced that it would restore the water supply to the peninsula only after its “de-occupation”.
The problem with water supply on the Crimean peninsula began in 2014, when Kiev unilaterally cut off water from the Kherson region.