OP-ED

Alla Hurska: The risk of water shortage in Ukraine

By Alla Hurska.

Published June 2, 2020. Updated June 2 at 8:40 am

Municipal service worker wearing a face mask, amid concerns over the spread of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, waters flowerbed near the building of the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, is seen in Kyiv on April 6, 2020.

Photo by Kostyantyn Chernichkin

An abnormally dry fall, lack of meteorological winter and an early spring drought have nearly turned some regions of Ukraine into a desert. Between September 2019 and May 2020, only 70 percent of the normal amount of precipitation (153 out of an average rate of 211 millimeters) fell in Ukraine. The lack of 58 mm of precipitation translates to a 35-trillion-liter deficit of water for Ukraine.