"Earlier, the water disappeared in the summer, and now it is not even winter," says Marina Radomska, a resident of the village near Zhytomyr. Its history is no longer uncommon - wells dry throughout Ukraine, wells are drilled deeper, and rivers, lakes and swamps disappear from the map.
Drought is no longer a regional problem of the South, but a nationwide trouble. In Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Cherkasy, Dnipropetrovsk regions, the water level decreased critically. Three lakes dried up in the Dnieper, among them - a bulletin. Lake Svityaz in Volyn retreated from the shores for tens of meters. Even the Dnieper is Mill, and ecologists do not rule out that in half a century the river will lose half of its fullness.
The reason is not only a lack of rainfall. In 2024, a temperature record was recorded in the history of observations. Summer gets longer, the heat is more intense, precipitation is short and ineffective. Rainy rainfall does not moisturize the soil, but only wash it with a surface. The snow that nourished the rivers is almost gone. There are no spring floods - therefore, swamps and reservoirs are not replenished with moisture.
According to the climatologist Vera Balabukh, the situation will only deteriorate. The average annual temperature increases, the durability increases. Such processes are not unique to Ukraine: in the Benillux countries, in the north of Germany, in Turkey and the Baltic Sea of the River, the river is also shallow, and navigation loses stability.
Particularly critical situation in the south of Ukraine. The loss of the Kakhovka reservoir after blasting the dam, as well as the occupation of irrigated territories of Kherson region, made the region one of the most vulnerable. Scientists capture soil temperature to 67 ° C, complete evaporation of moisture by 80% of agricultural land, expansion of the territory of Oleshkovsky Sands - Ukraine actually receives a new climate zone similar to a semi -desert.
Although the elongation of the warm period theoretically opens new agrarian opportunities - for example, growing three crops, - water shortage crosses these prospects. By 2050, Ukraine will have only 30% of the necessary fresh water. The rest will either have to import or ... survive without it.
