Despite the explicit security guarantees provided by the warring parties, the frontline Donetsk Filtration Station remains in grave danger amid continuous shelling, as claimed by Ertugrul Apakan, the chief monitor of the Organization for Security and Cooperation’s Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine.
The deteriorating security situation in the area and the cease-fire violations also pose a threat to the facility, which is vital to the region’s water supply. The station’s workers and OSCE monitors in the area are also under threat, Apakan said in a May 18 statement.
Apakan said that the sharp escalation was triggered by multiple launch rocket systems getting engaged in the violence, as recorded recently by the OSCE monitors.
The latest appeal by the OSCE followed a fresh incident of heavy shelling on the Donetsk Filtration Station on May 17 at 8 p.m. local time, after which the water plant was forced to suspend its work until repairs could be completed.
According to Voda Donbassa, the public utility company primarily in charge of water supplies in the war-torn region, the recent attack damaged the station’s switchgear and electricity transformers.
The Donetsk Filtration Station is located in Donetsk Oblast around 500 kilometers southeast of Kyiv. It supplies water to over 300,000 people on both sides of the frontline of Russia’s war in Donbas, primarily to Ukrainian-controlled Avdiivka and partially to the occupied cities of Donetsk and Yasinuvata.
Since 2014, the plant has been caught in the no-man’s land between Ukrainian and Russian-backed forces, and it has consistently suffered from shelling amid the endless armed clashes in the area. Despite that, a number of civilian workers from the Voda Donbassa company still operate the station on a regular basis to ensure vital water supplies.
During a recent incident of shelling upon the plant, at least five of its employees were wounded en route to their jobs by bus on April 17. Following this, the station was stopped until April 22, but nevertheless, the attacks resumed on April 25 and 28.
As a result of the attacks or power cuts amid hostilities, the station has been suspended dozens of times since 2014, occasionally leaving Avdiivka without fresh water and putting the city of 26,000 to the brink of humanitarian disaster.
According to Ukraine’s Ministry for Occupied Territories, as of May 18 morning, with the filtration station suspended, Avdiyivka had fresh water stored for only three days.
Given the immense threat and the ongoing violence near the Donetsk Filtration Station, the OSCE, as well as other humanitarian organizations, have repeatedly called for a stable ceasefire in the region.
Apart from humanitarian concerns, Ukraine’s Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources says that the station also poses a grave environmental threat. Should its chlorine storage tanks be breached by shelling, the resulting chemical contamination would pollute the soil and groundwater of the area, Ukrainian officials say.
