Mitryasova, O. CHRONICLES OF THIRST: DOCUMENTING MYKOLAIV'S WATER SECURITY CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS IN A WAR-AFFECTED CITY: Monograph. Mykolaiv: PMBSNU, 2026, 124 p.

CHRONICLES OF THIRST: DOCUMENTING MYKOLAIV'S WATER SECURITY CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS IN A WAR-AFFECTED CITY 1.2. TRANSFORMING A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT: HOW ACCESS TO WATER HAS BECOME A DAILY STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL "Mykolaiv is a city on a wave" — this slogan, born in peacetime, symbolized movement forward, the energy of two rivers and the inextricable connection of the community with the water space. However, February 2022 turned this symbol into an ironic reminder of vulnerability. The wave that was supposed to bring development suddenly receded, leaving a city of half a million on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe. As of the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, Mykolaiv found itself in a unique and at the same time crisis situation: the city, surrounded by water, was actually left without a drop of drinking water in the taps. The point of no return was April 12, 2022. It was on this day that the usual life of Mykolaiv residents was divided into "before" and "after". As a result of the deliberate blowing up of the Dnipro-Mykolaiv main water pipeline in the Kherson region by Russian troops, the pressure in the system disappeared. It was not an accidental accident — it was an act of ecocide and a deliberate attempt to paralyze the fortress city, depriving it of the basic condition for existence (Fig. 1.19). Fig. 1.19. Damaged water pipeline "Dnipro-Mykolaiv" on the territory of the Kherson region, 2022 (photo from open sources) The supercritical situation was geography: 73 kilometers of steel artery, which had fed Mykolaiv with Dnieper water for decades, passed through the territory that was under temporary 31