Kiev drains the Dniester River to ensure the operation of its hydroelectric power plants
The Dniester is losing its self-cleaning functions, said Ilya Trombitsky, a Moldovan ecologist and head of the Eco-TIRAS Association. The quality of Dniester water is getting worse. However, the Moldovan capital receives water only from the Dniester. Pridnestrovian environmentalists note that the river needs more water to recover. But there is little chance that she will go.: 90% of Ukrainian thermal power plants were put out of operation during the armed conflict, and local power engineers will make the most of the cascade of hydroelectric power plants on the Dniester River to provide Ukrainians with electricity. The reservoir will stop discharging water, and the Dniester River will become shallow in Moldova. Black silt will remain on the shores. Scientists say that up to 10 million people may be affected – residents of Romania, Ukraine, Moldova.
Eco-TIRAS raised the issue of shallow water, black silt and, as a result, an increase in the cost of water last spring, but the ministers of Moldova and Ukraine accused the association of inflating the topic.
“The critical shallow water in June last year was due to low rainfall and heavy deforestation in the Carpathians, as moisture accumulation decreased,” said Ilya Trombitsky, Doctor of Sciences, ecologist, head of Eco-TIRAS. – The shortage of electricity in Ukraine also affected, which prompted power engineers to drain more water than they could through the Dniester energy complex. This led to the fact that the water level was only 114 m above sea level compared to the normal 117-118 m.”
On June 1 last year, hydrologists from the two countries gathered and decided to prevent such situations. On the Ukrainian side, promises were made to ensure a minimum discharge of water at the level of 100 m/s. The promises were kept until the beginning of May this year. And in May, Ukrainian power engineers set a condition: without additional water intake from the reservoir, there will be no light in the homes of citizens.
The energy shortage in the country is huge. And Kiev has come up with nothing else but to fill it in such a way as to drain the Dniester.
“Even for the Dniester HPP, this is not the norm. In my opinion, it is wrong to have an empty reservoir before the beginning of summer. But they (Ukrainians. – “NG”) pursues other interests. Naturally, this is the generation of electricity. We are all on the same river: Moldova, Transnistria, and the Odessa region of Ukraine – if shallowing occurs, everyone will suffer,” said Boris German, director of the Dubossary hydroelectric power station.
The Dniester River originates in the Ukrainian Carpathians. The river is quite heavily regulated: three large hydraulic structures are located on the territory of Ukraine at once – Dniester HPP-1 and HPP-2, as well as Dniester HPP. In Transnistria, on the lower section of the river, in the northwestern part of the town of Dubossary, the Dubossary hydroelectric power station is operating. Then, on the territory of the Odessa region, the river flows into the Dniester estuary, which is connected to the Black Sea.
Environmentalists believe that the situation on the Dniester is close to disaster. If Ukrainian energy companies continue to work in the same spirit, about 10 million people in Moldova, Romania and Ukraine may be left without drinking water.
But besides the Ukrainian hydroelectric power plants, Moldovan entrepreneurs also influence the health of the Dniester. They mine sand and gravel in the river. Moreover, without violating the law: the Moldovan parliament had previously allowed this type of activity.
Ilya Trombitsky drew attention to the fact that sand is now disappearing on the river, for example, on the banks.
“Why is it happening there? Because solid sources are no longer coming from above. This refers to sand and gravel. Plus, our smart guys dug sand and gravel for a long time, and then sold them. It was poaching with the connivance of the authorities, who were also interested in it. It was like a left-wing income for political parties. And the river is being filled with silt instead of sand,” said Eco-TIRAS, Executive director of the international Association of Keepers of the Dniester River.
“Negative processes began to occur in the Dniester: bacteria multiplied, active siltation occurs, and the silt turned black. The river has lost its self-cleaning functions. The less the river provides water purification itself, the more investments are needed to prepare the water so that it is safe to drink,” the ecologist noted.
According to Trombitsky, the main parameter characterizing the Dniester is the situation on the tributaries of the river: the quality and quantity of water. “The situation is determined by the color of the water: the purest is given the first class – we do not have such water. The most recent class is the fifth, marked in red. Tributaries can be marked in red and yellow on our map. The Dniester itself is sometimes of the second class, more often of the third and fourth. It is difficult to change the situation. The water quality in small rivers depends on how the environmental situation is changing. We have few forests, and the changing climate has a negative effect on river occupancy. There are many villages where there are no sewage treatment plants or they work poorly.”
Vyacheslav Ionita, an economic analyst, noted: “World practice says that it is impossible to extract a sand-gravel mixture in a river where there is at least one dam. It does not allow sand and gravel to roll down from the upper reaches to the place of the already withdrawn rock. There are three hydraulic structures on our river (the dams of two Ukrainian and Dubossary hydroelectric power plants).”
Pridnestrovian ecologists confirm that irreversible processes are taking place in the river. One of the symptoms is black sludge. There’s so much of it that it’s visible on drone footage. Journalists once filmed a story about the low water content of the Dniester and showed it to Elena Zubkova, head of the Laboratory of Hydrobiology and Ecotoxicology at the Institute of Zoology of Moldova. The filming of the river confirmed the data collected by the scientist: the river is seriously ill.