The gesture has become mechanical for Mykola: every day for weeks, this retiree has come to fill two large cans of drinking water in the back of a tanker truck in this car park. “We take what we need to prepare meals. No more. We leave some for others! We are only two at home, he points out. Everyone left, with the war. Some of my children have fled, others are at the front. Only us old people are left!”
At home, there is no more drinking water at the tap, just a yellowish streak. The Russians bombed, last month, the water supply system, between Kherson and Mykolaiv, in southern Ukraine, and they have since prevented any repairs in the territory they occupy. Before the start of the war, about 500,000 Ukrainians lived in this city of Mykolaiv. For the inhabitants, it is time to get by. “For the moment we are pumping back the water from the river, we are cleaning it up as much as possibleexplains, Monday, May 16, Dmytro Pletentchouk, an officer. This is what has been flowing again, for a few days, at the apartment taps. But we can’t drink it yet.
“We are digging new wells in Mykolaiv. We hope to be able to supply everyone with drinking water again within a month!”
Dmytro Pletentchuk, officerat franceinfo
In the meantime, it is a company from Odessa, 130 kilometers from Mykolaiv, which sends its trucks every day at dawn to fill their 25,000-litre tank at springs in the region. “Before the truck, we had to go to the river, said Olga. So thank you to those people from Odessa, who bring us water!” This resident fills five cans at once. “There you go, it’s done. Hop! Another round trip! It’s still a chance that I live across the street!”
A few days ago, it was better to hurry, when the truck arrived: from 2 p.m., there was nothing left. “It’s a little better now”recognizes Olga, who returns for a final loading: “I’m going in quick little stepsshe said with a wide smile. You see, it gives me a nice silhouette: no need for fitness!”
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“Let’s hope this doesn’t last”, say these resilient residents. Before the war, Mykolaiv was, ironically enough, one of the few cities in Ukraine with a purification system good enough to drink tap water without problems.
Deprived of drinking water, the inhabitants of Mykolaiv have to rely on tank trucks: report by Agathe Mahuet
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