93 Percent of Kalmykia Residents Don’t have Reliable Access to Potable Water Supplies

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Aug. 19 – Ninety-three percent of residents of Kalmykia, a Buddhist republic in the North Caucasus, do not have reliable access to safe drinking water, one of the consequences of the drought brought on by climate change that has made it the hottest federal subject in Russia as well as increased water use by industry, Aleksandr Lisichkin of Kedr media reports.

            A quarter of the residences there are not connected to water supplies, forcing the population to rely on wells and increasingly often on water brought in by trucks or sold in bottles in stores and automatic dispensing machines  for which they have to pay extremely high prices, the journalist reports (kedr.media/stories/zasuha/).

            The situation is dire and getting worse, local people say, adding that they are certain Moscow “knows all about what is going on” but has decided to ignore the needs of the Kalmyks in favor of spending money on the war in Ukraine and on other projects, Lisichkin reports in a 4300-word article.

            Most Kalmyks, including those in the capital and other cities, residents speaking on condition of anonymity report, are still forced to rely on wells, the water in many of which is highly saline and dangerous to health. They say they need more water and a better system of distribution, not using what money there is to send troops to fight in Ukraine.

            One resident was especially blunt: “One gets the impression,” he says, “that the leadership of the republic is not inclined to support the local population. Officials don’t see their future as being in the republic and therefore adopt a predatory attitude,” stealing what they can for themselves and allowing the people to suffer and even die.

            The water shortages are especially critical in rural areas and smaller cities, Lisichkin says; but they are now hitting even the capital, with water being turned off or not available on almost a daily basis. Officials in the republic and in Moscow promise something better, but it is, as Chernomyrdin once observed, turning out like always.

            How long the increasingly parched Kalmyks, a nation that gets little attention compared to its Muslim neighbors,  will remain quiet very much remains to be seen.