Ukraine rivers drop to lowest level in 100 years, posing threat to agriculture 

This year the water level in many rivers across Ukraine, as well as in the Dnipro, the longest river of Ukraine and the fourth-longest in Europe, hit a record low for the last 100 years, experts said.

A dry winter and fall has sparked concerns about low levels of water in the country’s waterways, rivers, and low levels of moisture in Ukrainian soil. 

The lack of water threatens both the country’s ecosystems and its vital agrarian sector, especially in southern regions like Kherson Oblast, where the issue on irrigation is already complicated. 

Ukraine has become a major food exporter, and international organizations have warned of food shortages in many countries as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“We had a very dry winter and fall, and now there is practically no rainfall during the spring,” said Ihor Andriyenko, head of lower Dnipro basin department at State Water Resources Agency of Ukraine, as quoted by Agrobusiness Today news agency on April 22. 

“It is not enough to saturate the soil, which has been completely dried over the winter,” he added. 

 An abnormally warm and snowless winter and little rainfall since the beginning of the year led to very low level of water not only in rivers, but also in some of the country’s water reservoirs along the Dnipro river, like Kremenchug, Kamiyanskiy, and Dniprovskiy. 

The maximum daily inflow of water to the Kyiv water reservoir in late March was four times lower than normal.

And the situation might not get better: “Unfavorable conditions for the formation of runoff will continue in May,” says the website of the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center.

The biggest threat will be for small rivers and streams of Dnipro basin and northwest basin of Desna river. 

“If there will be no rains, small rivers can even dry,” said Vitaliy Zhuk, head of Kharkiv branch of State Water Resources Agency of Ukraine. 

Victoria Boyko, head of the prognosis department at Hydrometeorological Center, warned about coming danger in early March. 

She said that absence of spring waterfowl birds may indicate a “general reduction of surface water, a deterioration of the ecological situation and a deterioration of water quality in rivers.”

As a preventive measure to limit water use in the country, the government will impose restrictions on amount of water, which farmers can use for irrigation, according to Mykhailo Khorev, acting head of the State Water Resources Agency.  

At the same time without proper irrigation, “Kherson Oblast risks becoming a desert,” Khorev said.

Boyko doesn’t give an optimistic scenario for Ukrainian rivers. “The trends that we currently observe are long-term,” she said.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s economy ministry has worsened its grain harvest forecast for 2020 to 60 million tons, blaming a lack of moisture and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine has predicted that Ukrainian farmers in 2020 will harvest 60 million tons of grain and leguminous crops compared with the previous forecast of 65-70 million tonnes.

The ministry stated: “According to the adjusted forecasts… due to lack of moisture and economic factors caused by the coronavirus disease and COVID-19 pandemic, farmers will harvest 60 million tonnes of grain and leguminous crops.” 

Spring farming has gotten underway, but has been hampered by the coronavirus. By April 23, field work had been carried out on an area of 7.8 million hectares of the 15.3 million targeted hectares.