Russia destroys the water supply network and spreads thirst across Ukraine

There is no longer a supply network, no snow to melt, no puddles to squeeze out. The civilians who remain in Mariupol, Chernigov and in many towns in southern Ukraine endure a blockade that has left them without the most basic of life: water. One of the first objectives in any war strategy is to destroy the basic supply networks for the population. A textbook siege in which the objective is to starve and thirst the enemy population. And the Russians are on it.

The infrastructures that brought the supply to the houses have been blown up and the continuous power outages end up rendering the systems unusable. And that, as the Ukrainian Association of Water and Sanitation recognized a few days ago in a local media, the country “has been adapting” its infrastructures to the possibility of a war for some time. “We have learned from the war in Crimea and Donbas and have carried out analysis and research on the security of the sector in times of war,” confirm the same sources.

Even so, there are places where no forecast has served. The authorities of Mariúpol, with 400,000 inhabitants before the invasion, and Chernigov, with almost 300,000 neighbors, try to fill the shortage with tankers and supply points, but it is not enough. More so if you take into account that the civilians who go to these places are easy targets. Those who manage to escape arrive at the borders of neighboring countries thirsty and with the story of too many days without being able to drink.

Without the most basic

From the aid organization Save the Children they confirm that in the reception centers of the route that the refugees follow, they lack the most basic. They know this well in Poland, where they have had to reinforce the water and sanitation systems at some border crossings to serve the hundreds of thousands of people who arrive. “Especially in small towns we were not prepared to meet such demand and we have had to act to provide that service,” confirm the Polish authorities who received a request for help from the Ukrainian Water and Sanitation Association a week ago.

It is worse for those who have not been able to leave the cities. On the 14th, Russian troops blew up one of the pumping stations in Chernigov. Four employees died and a third of the population was left without supply. It is just one example of the siege that the city is suffering, in which for several days there has been no heating, electricity, or running water.

Doctors Without Borders has denounced the dramatic humanitarian situation in Mariupol. “There has been no drinking water or any medicine for more than two weeks.” Even the supply destined to clean the streets, which many boiled to be able to consume, is suspended.

Without that precious element, they resorted to the snow that fell last week, and then, once melted or consumed, to the water of the puddles, now converted into useless mud. “People have to look for it on the ground and they tell us that they were boiling it because there is no other place to get it from,” they say from the organization. It doesn’t kill as fast as a bullet or missile, but thirst is a devastating weapon that is also used against Ukraine.