Water scarcity and contamination in eastern Ukraine

摘要

Water resources have uneven distribution throughout the territory of Ukraine. The economic planning during the Soviet period was based mostly on the transport logistics and centralization, and resulted in the location of most industrial and urbanized areas in water-scarce regions of eastern Ukraine. Long-term anthropogenic pressure on the limited water resources of this part of Ukraine have caused the growth of water crises and high costs for ensuring water security. At present, the transboundary (Russia/Ukraine) Seversky Donets water basin (98 900 km~2) is considered as the main water supply to three big industrial and highly urbanized regions of Ukraine: Kharkiv, Donetsk and Lugansk, and plays an important socio-economic role as a major source of industrial and drinking water to about 5 million inhabitants. Since 2008, our research team has been conducting long-term investigative monitoring of surface and groundwaters in the Seversky Donets at 40 sites (Fig. 1) in the transboundary, rural and urban areas, including the survey of surface waters in four rivers of the basin, groundwaters (springs and wells) and precipitation.