The quality of drinking water is rapidly deteriorating due to the war in Ukraine

Ukrainians will face a shortage of clean water in the next decades and will be forced to drink only bottled water. The head of the committee for the protection of water resources of the International Association of Environmental Professionals, Maryana Hinzula, told Ukrainian Radio.

She explained that the quality of water resources is affected by everything that happens on the surface of the earth, including military operations, which are accompanied by the use of a large number of weapons.

Water runoff per person is less than 2 thousand cubic metres of surface runoff. Therefore, already after 2031-2050 water deficit in Ukraine will be 61-71 per cent. Already today water has become dirtier as a result of a full-scale war, and in five years it will reach its peak, as groundwater has the ability to infiltrate what is happening on the surface," the expert pointed out.

She stressed that every missile that flew into the Ukrainian airspace has a destructive impact on the ecology and noted that the destructive impact on the ecology due to the war will be felt more strongly in the future.

The missile that flew over Kiev has already had its delayed impact to a certain extent. It's just that it's not happening all at once, but slowly. All the things that happened in Bucha, in Irpen, two years later appeared in the river," the expert explained.

Hinzula pointed out that the main problem of water resources is iron and rust in the water.

It is especially relevant for Kiev. The capital consumes 60% of its water from the Desna and the remaining 30% from the Dnieper. In different regions the situation with drinking water depends on the state of the main water arteries," the expert said.

She added that the cleanest rivers in Chernihiv Region remain today.