More than a week after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, the 50,000 inhabitants of Nikopol, upstream, are supplied by tanks.
The cisterns follow one another. More than a week after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, the town of Nikopol, upstream, saw the reservoir which supplied running water to the 50,000 inhabitants still present, 100,000 before the war, empty. Result, not a single drop has come out of the taps for several days, the population is therefore supplied with drinking water by cisterns. “The taps are dry, it’s been four days”, sighs Olena, 74. The retiree had known everything: power cuts, freezing cold in winter, but the water had always flowed freely.
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To supply the population with water, the town hall of Nikopol has set up 24 distribution points. Julia waited in line for more than an hour before she could fill her two canisters: “It’s drinking water, but you have to boil it first before consuming it. I also use it to do the dishes, to wash myself and for toilet water. We will put up with this situation. as long as it takes.”
“Putin wants to send us back to the Stone Age”
Residents wait quietly in front of blue cisterns each containing 1,000 liters of water. Leonid, in his fifties, filled up to last several days. “I never imagined living in such a situation. We are still in 2023, it’s sad. Putin wants to send us back to the stone age, but we will never capitulate.”
On this new front, there is Oleksandr Siou, the mayor of Nikopol. With the war, the city councilor wants to put the situation into perspective: “We will distribute all the water we can and if there is a shortage, we will seek it elsewhere.”
“The most serious thing is not to live without water, but to live in a city that is constantly under fire from Russian artillery. Nikopol has been bombarded every day for a year, and sometimes several times a day. “
Oleksandr Siou, Mayor of Nikopolat franceinfo
While waiting for the construction of new pipes to allow the return of running water, the inhabitants of Nikopol can count on the solidarity of several Ukrainian cities, such as Poltava or Chernihiv, which supply the city using tank trucks.
The city of Nikopol faced with the lack of drinking water – the report by Omar Ouahmane and Jérémy Tuil
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