Ukraine will be fenced off from Crimea by a dam by the spring of 2017

The Ukrainian authorities continue to build a dam on the North Crimean Canal in the Kherson region to completely block the supply of water to the Crimea. It is expected that all work should be completed by March 2017. At the same time, the construction budget is 15.6 million hryvnias (39.1 million rubles), the UNN agency reports. Before the attachment of the peninsula to Russia, the channel provided 85% of the needs of Crimea in water.

“Previously, water was supplied to the Crimea and a support was created, and users had the opportunity to take water. Today we do not supply water to the Crimea, and if there are no partitions, the water will go to the Crimea. In 2014, we built a temporary partition from bags, but you understand that such a temporary building built from bags,” said Georgy Buziyan, director of the United Building Construction Directorate.

According to him, if the North Crimean Canal is not blocked, then problems with providing water to manufacturers of agricultural products of the Kherson region may begin. Currently, financing of construction from the budget has not yet begun, so the work is underway at the expense of contractors, Buziyan explained

"The documents have been approved, we hope that until the end of the week we will receive all funds - 11 million 600 thousand hryvnias," he said. In general, the construction budget will amount to 15 million 640 thousand hryvnias.

Buziyan added that the construction is divided into two stages. The first is the construction of the "body" of the dam, which, under any weather conditions, should be completed before January 1. The second stage includes cladding and construction of structures, which does not directly affect the work of the dam.

Earlier this week, at a meeting of the Council of Defense of the Kherson Region, which took place at the regional state administration, officials announced that the stationary capital dam will provide a significant increase in the area of ​​irrigated lands of the region, further development of the rice and a number of dried water bodies for the needs of fishing, recalls Ukrinform .

“We must finish the main structure before the water supply. We understand that the irrigation season for drawings begins in April, and the North Crimean Canal is filled in March. That is, until March we must provide a building for supplying water along the North Crimean Canal,” Buziyan said at a meeting.

The head of the Kherson Regional State Administration and the chairman of the defense council of the region Andrei Gordeev, in turn, recalled that this dam has been built since last year. “It will provide us with 7 thousand hectares of irrigation. We will receive in the Chaplinsky district plus 7 thousand hectares by irrigation, we will get the opportunity to conduct rice farming in the Kalanchak district and get the possibility of burying ponds that have already dried up there,” he explained.

Back in 2014, shortly after the Crimea joined the Russian Federation, Ukraine began work on the department of the North Crimean Canal from the peninsula. So along the Armyansk -Kherson highway near the bridge in the area of ​​the village of Kalanchak, a dam was built of sandbags.

The North Crimean Canal is the largest hydraulic structure in Europe. Its main purpose is the transportation of water for irrigation and water supply of the Kherson region and Crimea. However, for a long time, Dnieper water does not enter the peninsula.

In Ukraine, it is stated that after the Crimea joined the Russian Federation, unskilled workers destroyed the structures of the North Crimean Canal located on the peninsula. In addition, Crimea has not yet paid for water already supplied to his needs, they emphasize in Kyiv.

The water consumption of Crimea by 85% was provided from the North Crimean Canal. Over the past years, more than 460 thousand hectares of agricultural vehicles have been irrigated from this channel, of which almost 102 thousand hectares in the Kherson region and about 360 thousand hectares in the Crimea.

Recall that Crimea became part of the Russian Federation after a referendum held in March 2014. Ukraine did not recognize the results of popular will. In Kyiv, the accession of Crimea is considered to be "occupation", in the West - "annexation", which became the reason for imposing sanctions on Russia.