Families suffer seven years without water supply in eastern Ukraine

It has been seven years since conflict first broke out in eastern Ukraine and made access to drinking water a struggle for millions.

Today, continued shelling and armed clashes continue to endanger the water supplies of families in the region. For those who live along the ‘contact line’, cooking, hand washing and access to clean drinking water are a daily challenge. Kindergartens, schools and hospitals are also affected. Moreover, the relative isolation of cities and villages in Donetsk and Luhansk has only intensified as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

These days, the Ukrainian checkpoint in the village of Pishchevik is usually deserted. But, once a week, it gets busy when local residents bring plastic containers and queue near a large white tank that bears the inscription ‘drinking water’.

“The checkpoint was closed to non-Government-controlled areas in March 2020 due to the pandemic,” says Larysa, a pensioner who lives in Pishchevik. “And we come to the checkpoint to get water. We have not had our own water for seven years already.”

For the second consecutive year, drinking water has been supplied to the village of Pishchevik by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in cooperation with the charity organization ADRA, as part of a project to provide water to settlements on the contact line in eastern Ukraine. This year, thanks to European Union Humanitarian Aid, the village will receive a cubic meter of drinking water every week.

On the edge of conflict

Larysa and the other local residents usually arrive at the checkpoint ahead of time, before the water truck. This is an important event for the village. Here, on the ‘contact line’, access to clean drinking water has been a problem for the last seven years.

“There is no water in the village, no water at all,” says Larysa. “The tap water does not run. And the wells dried up when the war began. The village is abandoned, no-one needs us. It’s good that they bring us water.”

Half of Pishchevik’s population have already left the village due to shelling, unemployment and isolation. Most of the buildings here are either destroyed or abandoned. And only some of the one-story houses in Pischevik have their lights on in the evenings.

“There are only 17 local residents left here, as well as the military personnel who serve at the checkpoint,” says Larysa.

The checkpoint has become the only social facility in the village. Here, people do not only collect drinking water – they also come here for bread, which the military brings from a neighbouring city.

“We use clean water to make tea or cook soup, or just drink it. We save this water as much as we can,” adds Larysa.

She says the ongoing conflict means that many locals are used to making do.

“We use the water carefully and always leave some, as we are afraid that because of the shelling, the water truck may not come. Or that the snow could cover the road. There is always a fear of being left without water.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated problems in the village, which has limited access to medicines, food and health services.

Since the closure of the checkpoint, Pishchevik has been left without permanent transport connections. If UNICEF did not bring water to the village, residents would need to take a taxi to the neighbouring town of Pavlopil, several kilometres away.

“We're just surviving here,” says Larysa. “Therefore, we appreciate the fact that they bring us water. For us, this means that someone remembers us.”

Clean water for children

The town of Mariinka in the Donetsk region is almost one hundred kilometres from the village of Pishchevik, but their problems are similar.

Mariinka also lives under the threat of shelling, landmines and an insecure water supply.

“The last time we had tap water in our town was seven years ago,” says Alla Demenko, the principal of kindergarten ‘Zolotyi Kliuchyk’. “It was before the war.”

Since the pipeline that supplied drinking water was destroyed by shelling, Mariinka has been forced to rely on pumped or bottled water. 

“They pump us water from the Karlovske reservoir,” says Alla. “This water has a green colour, an unpleasant smell, and sometimes you can even see fish in it.”

Alla says that staff at the kindergarten will not even wash dishes with this water.

For cooking, drinking and cleaning, staff use water supplied by UNICEF with financial support from the European Union. Blue tanks, that have been installed on the first floor of the kindergarten, are filled with imported water once a week.

“They bring us one ton of water,” says Alla. “Previously, this was more than enough, but with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the consumption has increased. Because children began to wash their hands more often.”