The Dniester River Is Receding Near Khotyn; The City Is Being Saved From Water Problems
The water level in the Dniester River near Khotyn in Bukovina continues to drop. As a result, water is no longer flowing naturally into the intake shaft, so utility workers are forced to pump it in to ensure the city does not lose its centralized water supply.
The utility company says this is only a temporary solution. If the river level does not rise, the problem may resurface in the winter.
According to Hryhorii Borosyuk, director of the municipal utility “Khotynteplomerezha,” the situation with the water level in the Dniester has become even more complicated since early July. “Since your publication, the water level near the first-stage pumping station has dropped even further. Right now, the water is about half a meter below the edge of the intake shaft and isn’t flowing in naturally,” he said.
To ensure the city’s water supply, company employees installed equipment that allows water to be pumped from the shallow riverbed directly into the intake shafts. “To prevent the city from being left completely without water, our employees have resorted to extreme technical measures—forcibly pumping water from the Dniester. This places a heavy burden on both people and equipment, but right now it’s the only way to keep the system running,” Borosyuk explained.
According to him, this work was made possible thanks to funds allocated by the city council, as well as the efforts of the water utility’s employees. The system can operate throughout the summer. However, it will not fully resolve the problem during the colder months. “These pumps won’t help in the winter. The only way to restore the natural water intake is to raise the overall water level in the river,” noted the company’s director.
Borosyuk also refuted the assumption that the problem could be solved simply by cleaning the riverbed or removing silt. “The claim that the problem is ‘three meters of silt that needs to be cleared’ shows a lack of understanding of the specifics of the Khotyn water intake. The Dniester riverbank in our area is rocky, so there is no classic siltation here that can simply be removed with machinery,” he said.
According to the director of “Khotynteplomerezha,” the water intake shaft is a major reinforced concrete structure that cannot simply be deepened or rebuilt due to the nature of the soil. “No amount of ‘clearing the rapids’ can bring water back into the intake shaft if the Dniester’s water level itself has fallen below the critical threshold,” added Borosyuk.
He assured that residents of Khotyn should not experience any water supply disruptions in the near future. At the same time, the situation may become more complicated again before winter if the river’s water level does not recover. The company’s director called on representatives of the river basin authority to join the search for a long-term solution to the problem of low water levels on the Dniester. Hryhorii Borosyuk, director of the municipal enterprise “Khotynteplomerezha,” told a Ukrinform correspondent about this.
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