UN OCHA: Access to safe water for Ukraine’s rural communities.
“I live alone here. The only water I had was not drinkable – it was very salty. I would go and collect it from my neighbour’s wells instead, carrying two buckets at a time,” explains Oryslava, in her eighties, who lives in the Kherson region.
The region has been drastically affected by the war. Almost every house in the village has been either damaged or destroyed. In addition to the hostilities, the breach of the Kakhovka Dam in 2023 caused the water levels in wells and private boreholes to drop significantly, further complicating local people’s access to clean water.
Across Ukraine, access to essential services such as health care, clean water and heating is increasingly difficult; not just in the oblasts along the front line but everywhere, as attacks on essential services have affected people across the country.
