Great dryness

Small rivers and artesian wells dry up

Due to the decrease in the level of the Khoper River, problems arose with the water supply of the regional center of Rtishchevo: it was necessary to temporarily stop the work of the water intake facilities of the local water utility, and then impose restrictions on the supply of tap water to residents and ...

Due to the decrease in the level of the Khoper River, problems arose with the water supply of the regional center of Rtishchevo: it was necessary to temporarily stop the work of the water intake facilities of the local water utility, and then impose restrictions on the supply of tap water to residents and organize delivery by water carriers.

Khoper is considered a fairly large river: its length is 980 kilometers, its width reaches one hundred meters, and its depth is up to seventeen. This is one of the largest tributaries of the Don, flowing through the Penza, Saratov, Voronezh and Volgograd regions. According to the Saratov Committee for Environmental Protection, Khoper became shallow due to the fact that the flow of small rivers flowing into it decreased during the drought.

Now residents of Rtishchev receive tap water not around the clock, but according to a schedule. In addition, the work of water tanks was organized. The regional authorities are planning to bring the water intake to a deeper level and launch two artesian wells.

In rural areas where there are no large rivers, water shortages are even more pronounced. In the Trans-Volga region, most villages receive water from ponds, which are filled only during the spring flood. However, there have been no floods here since 2007.

For example, in the village of Trudovik, St. Petersburg District, the pond completely dried up last summer. There is no underground water suitable for drinking. About a thousand people live in the village. In the Romanovsky district, according to the observations of the local administration, the water level in the artesian wells that feed the district center and most villages has fallen by ten to twelve meters. “Our temperature reaches 48 degrees. The birch trees are drying up, I have never seen anything like this,” says Alexander Mogilin, deputy head of the administration. The village of Bolshoy Karai (1.7 thousand people live here) found itself in a difficult situation: local wells were built in the 1980s, the village water supply - in the 1950s.