The eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk has a severe shortage of water. Members of the city’s decreasing population must fill water containers by hand at public wells throughout the city.
As guns and rockets fire, people go outside only long enough to get water at the pumps. The pumps have been the city’s only water source for more than two months. Fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces near the city in the Donetsk area has threatened access to important resources. Residents have been cut off from gas and water for months. The water flows for now. But many people are afraid that by winter, the city could face a crisis once the pipes begin to freeze.
“The water infrastructure(基础设施) was destroyed by the constant battles,” said Lyubov Mahlii. The 76-year-old woman gathers 20 liters of water twice a day from a public tank near her apartment. “It’s a great risk for us, but what can we do?” She said. Mahlii said she boils some water for at least 15 minutes to make sure it is safe to drink. The rest is used for bathing, washing clothes and dishes, watering plants and taking care of a lost dog.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued an evacuation(撤离) order to all residents of the Donetsk region at the end of July. But, Mahlii has not made plans to flee. “I don’t want to leave,” she said. “I will die here.”
Local officials believe the water situation will only get worse once the weather gets cold. Ukrainian officials are still trying to persuade the remaining people in Donetsk to evacuate. The war’s front line threatens to move further west. And it will be very hard for people to live in the cold winter. Officials in Kramatorsk plan to build more public wells to supply the remaining population. But they warned the water may not be of good quality.
Mahlii has not made plans for what she will do once cold weather arrives. But after 47 years in her Sloviansk apartment, she will face whatever difficulty. “We are surviving by any means,” she said.
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