Crimean Chemical Plants Threatened by Ukraine's Water War With Russia

Published on by in Social

Crimean Chemical Plants Threatened by Ukraine's Water War With Russia

Having despoiled Crimea's harvest, Ukraine's water war with Russia may take more victims, with two major Crimean chemical plants near closure because ofa water shortage, aCrimean official said Wednesday.

TheKrimsky Titan andKrimsky Sodoviy factories, which are situated inthe northern part ofCrimea, may soon be shut down after theUkrainian government's move tocut thewater flowing through theNorth Crimea Canal, which supplies 80 percent forthe peninsula's water, Edip Gafarov, amember ofthe general committee ofthe Crimean national council said, RIA Novosti reported.

"The director ofthe plant told us that he had asupply ofwater fornearly 30 to35 days, after which both plants may stop working if we do not restart supplying water via theNorth Crimea Canal," Gafarov said.

Theplants' management declined tocomment onthe issue, saying only that their parent company Group DF is authorized togive comment onthis situation. TheGroup DF spokesperson said that theplants are currently working ona regular basis, but both ofthem are trying toreduce water intake.

TheKrimsky Titan plant is one ofthe main producers oftitanium dioxide inEastern Europe. It also produces mineral fertilizers, vitriolic acid, copperas andother chemical substances. TheKrimsky Sodoviy factory is amajor enterprise inthe market ofsoda carbonate andbefore theannexation ofCrimea was theonly soda carbonate producer inUkraine.

Both plants belong tothe Group DF company, which is owned bythe Ukrainian billionaire Dmytro Firtash. He was recently charged with bribery inthe U.S. andis currently awaiting anextradition hearing inVienna.

Earlier inApril, Crimea's Agriculture Minister Nikolai Polyushkin said that thewater war with Ukraine was likely tocreate huge problems forthe peninsula's agriculture andcost Crimean farmers up to5 billion rubles ($140 million). Theshortage offresh water has already destroyed therice crop andlead toreduced soybean andcorn harvests, according tothe Crimean Agriculture Ministry.

Ukraine recently confirmed that theNorth Crimea Canal is mostly closed andthat theonly territory getting water fromit is theKherson region tothe north ofthe Crimean peninsula, thenews agency Kriminform reported.

Details here

Media

Taxonomy