Water supplies in Kyiv have begun to fail more often because of voltage fluctuations. This was reported by Kyivvodokanal Deputy Director General Serhiy Horkutsenko in an interview with Ekonomichna Pravda.
The entire electrical part of the water utility was built in the 1970s and cannot cope with fluctuations, he said. Electricians have to switch the electrical systems over, but there is a shortage of staff.
“Now, as for why the water didn’t disappear before but does now. Over four years we have lost 40% of our staff because our tariff has been frozen, and people have quit. Because of frozen tariffs, because of 50% reservation. Thank God, for the last two years they gave us this 75%, but you can’t bring a person back,” he said.
According to him, at Kyivvodokanal one person is now doing the work of four. The company lacks fitters, power engineers and welders.
The official added that there is a difference between, hypothetically, there being no water in Kyiv’s networks and there being no drinking water for residents.
“The difference is that when we carry out repair work according to the regulations, we provide a water tanker. It brings drinking water. What will happen with water being supplied to flats? I don’t know, I’ll be honest,” he said.
Horkutsenko guaranteed that drinking water would be delivered.
He recalled that in 2022 water supply in Kyiv was reduced by half. The situation has now worsened due to a change in the tactics of Russian attacks. As a result, a priority will have to be chosen: wastewater disposal, not water supply.
After three days without sewerage, an epidemic catastrophe will begin. The problems will be especially acute for the lower floors of multi-storey residential buildings.
“That is why the priority was set to do everything to divert wastewater,” he explained.
According to him, the current water supply outages are linked precisely to the lack of capacity to divert wastewater, rather than to damaged water utility facilities.
“A huge amount of work has been done on sewerage. And in principle, even over these two days the sewerage system was working. There was no electricity, there were many things missing, but it was working. But I emphasise: there is a major problem with staffing. Yesterday’s situation (the conversation took place on 9 October). It was necessary to switch on backup power. One electrician or one power engineer for five stations. He went to one station to do the work, then moved to the second. And at that time the third one stops on the backup power source,” he said.
- After the massive strikes on the energy sector launched by Russia on 30 September, water supplies in Kyiv have already partially disappeared several times. This affected districts on both banks of the city.