Crimea River Water, gas, electricity and food come across a narrow neck of land, called the Isthmus of Crimea (or Perekop), connecting Crimea to the rest of Ukraine. There are no access routes from Russia - apart from a ferry across the Strait of Kerch, though Russia has had plans for a bridge since 1990. Crimea also uses about 1.2 billion watts of electricity annually. While there are four thermal power stations in Crimea, they only supply one-tenth of the demand. The other 90 percent comes from the Ukrainian mainland – again, via Perekop, as well as the Chongar Peninsula to the east. In addition, 90 percent of all food and industrial goods come from Ukraine through Perekop and Dzhankoy, which is a main transportation hub. The Perekop Isthmus is a narrow strip of flat land, approximately 5-7 km wide (~3-4 mi), and is known for several important historical events. First, ancient scholars claimed that Jason, of classical Argonauts fame, portaged his vessel across the Isthmus on his voyage back home from Colchis (modern Georgia), with his cargo of ‘golden fleece’. In the 15th century, Genoa maintained a trading post on the site of Perekop, and were driven out by the Tatars, who built a fortress on the site, called ‘Or-Kapi’. Perekop, no doubt, was the site of many battles since the times of the Cimmerians and Scythians, for it occupies a classic strategic location. Field Marshall Erich von Manstein, Hitler’s master military strategist, captured Crimea in Sept, 1941 battling his way through Perekop to Sevastopol, rapidly driving his tanks and artillery through a spirited, yet outmanned and futile Soviet defense line. Today, Russian troops have again dug trenches there, as part of their ‘defense’ of Crimea. Through that narrow isthmus runs a huge man-made river, carrying precious water down through Krym, providing about 75 percent of the water supply needs of the populace. Khruschev began construction in 1961, of the Ukrainian Komsomol North Crimean Canal (NCC). The NCC runs from the large Kakhovka Reservoir on the Dnipro R, the last of a cascade of six reservoirs on the Dnipro, southeast over a distance of 210 km (~115 mi) to the town of Perekop, and then onto the city of Dzankoye. There, it branches off into many other, smaller irrigation canals and municipal water supply pipelines. The main NCC is about 400 km (~225 mi) long, of which the first 210 km (115 mi) is gravity-fed, i.e. the slope of the canal from the Kakhovka Reservoir is such that water can flow naturally down a small gradient for the first half of its length. In that gravity portion of the canal, the flow is about 300 cubic meters per second. It doesn’t sound like much, but that is equivalent to the average annual flow in the Potomac River (10,000 cubic feet/second). After that, the elevation rises, and many large pumps and a considerable amount of electricity are needed to lift the water uphill through numerous plateaus to supply the irrigation needs of the farms of Crimea. Since precipitation in Crimea, on average, is only a modest 30-40 cm annually (16-22 inches), or roughly the average annual precipitation of Arizona and New Mexico, and evaporation is quite high, it covers only half of the crop requirements of Crimea. During drought years, which occur frequently, average precipitation falls to less than 10 cm (4 inches). When Anton Chekov first laid eyes on the Crimean plain facing the Azov Sea, he compared it to a desolate tundra. That’s why irrigated agriculture is so important to Crimea, and why it uses about 85% of the flow in the NCC. The NCC irrigation system is quite complex, and includes the main canal length of 400 km; a secondary irrigation canal system with a length of 1540 km and 396 pump stations; and 256 other major control gates and installations that have been built to ensure a steady supply of water to the Crimean peninsula. Water from the NCC fills nine reservoirs, which supply the Kerch peninsula, Feodosia, Simferopol, Sudak and Sevastopol with irrigation water, industrial supplies and drinking water. A 36 km (20 mi) pipeline runs from the NCC to the east, providing drinking water for the city of Kerch. Dzhankoy (Cankoi in Tatar), itself, has an interesting history, for it is a transportation hub for two major highways and railroads that cross into Crimea. In the first years after the 1917 Russian Revolution, branches of the Zionist organizations Maccabi, Tseirei Zion and Hehaluts, were established in Dzhankoy. That’s why Dzhankoy is the subject of a popular Yiddish song Hey! Zhankoye a Soviet-era song praising the life of Jews on collective farms in Crimea. This song was popularized in the U.S. by Pete Seeger, who visited Dzhankoy in 1964, and asked about this song, having heard it some thirty years before. He devotes some ten pages of The Incompleat Folksinger (1972) to his experiences in Dzhankoy. Pete Seeger transliterated the song from its original Yiddish in 1941, and recorded it. Later, it became a popular song (with revised lyrics) in the early 1960’s of the Plast kurin, ‘Burlaky’. Though there are several rivers flowing from the Crimean mountains, they are quite small and are less than one-tenth of the flow in the NCC. During droughts, there is hardly any flow in those rivers. Thus, they cannot provide for the needs of the cities, particularly during drought years. Just for comparison sake, the Chorna R, which flows on the south-western side of the Crimean mountain range down to Sevastopol, is only 34 km (~20 mi) long. This river is known as the site for one of the famous battles fought near Inkerman, during the Crimean War in November, 1854. Irrigation management in Crimea has not adapted well to the changing economy and political situation after Ukraine’s independence in 1991. Reforms in the agricultural sector are much needed to conserve water supply and to increase agricultural productivity. Until the recent referendum, the State Committee of Water Management (SCWM) in Ukraine was responsible for managing the water resources of Crimea. The SCWM is responsible for the main and secondary canals, main pumping stations and pumps for on-farm delivery. Farmers, on the other hand, are responsible for maintaining on-farm canals and drainage ditches, pipelines and sprinklers. The land, on-farm irrigation infrastructure and machines are state property, though privatization efforts began in 1996 and have not been successful, with less than 10 percent of former kolkhosps in private hands. This is the reason why farmers neglect maintenance of the system and sprinkler machines. They do not have a sense of ownership and, as a result, the system has badly deteriorated during the past 20 years. Hence, agricultural production which had a peak of 400,000 irrigated hectares in 1990, has declined dramatically to half that total in 2009 because of lack of maintenance and silting of irrigation canals and the drainage systems; salinization of soils and abandonment of farms; and increasingly expensive energy for pumping. Energy accounts for 75 percent of total irrigation costs. Where, once, in 1990 the irrigated agriculture of Crimea produced over 70 percent of all crops grown, it now accounts for only 25 percent of a declining agricultural sector. The agricultural sector of Crimea requires a great deal of investment. The World Bank was on the verge of supporting loans for the rehabilitation of several large tracts of irrigated land in Crimea, as well as those in Ukraine’s Kherson Oblast’. But, they found out just before the annexation of Krym, that China was on the verge of signing a comparable deal with the Yanukovych government, and declined to proceed. China’s terms were not favorable for Ukraine, but the ‘middlemen’ involved in this Chinese rehabilitation project would have benefitted substantially. How the food, energy and water services to Krym will be resolved is a key critical political and economic issue between Ukraine’s government and Russia. The role of Ukraine’s Water Management Committee is unclear. The irrigation season will soon begin in Krym. In this situation, Ukraine holds the upper hand, as 90 percent of the resources come from Ukraine through the narrow isthmus. It will be years before the bridge from Russia through Kerch can be built, and at a considerable cost of nearly one billion euros. It’s Ukraine’s one trump card, since they control the resources of Krym. But, it can also be the source of alleged ‘provocations’ and an excuse by Russia to further meddle in Ukraine’s internal affairs. UKRAINIAN WEEKLY on Science and Technology in Ukraine, 24Mar, 2014 Eugene Z. Stakhiv, PhD IWR Visiting Scholar Johns Hopkins University Eugene Z. Stakhiv, PhD IWR Visiting Scholar Johns Hopkins University Institute for Water Resources 7701 Telegraph Road Alexandria, VA 22315-3868 TEL: 703-428-8077 FAX: 703-428 6686 iwr.usace.army.mil/ iciwarm.org/
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 11:38:31 +0000