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 The special value of tram routes was their ability to penetrate remote areas where the private sector stretched for kilometers. The tram became a gathering point for the entire street. People learned the schedule of the "water voyage" by word of mouth or through district chats. The stop turned into a microcosm of military life. As soon as the car stopped and the driver opened the door, hoses were removed from there. The queue, consisting mainly of elderly people, silently and disciplined approached the cranes. There was no hustle and bustle here — there was a common misfortune that taught people to appreciate every minute of the work of utility workers. The driver of municipal transport in Mykolaiv is not just an employee of the depot. This is a person who was responsible for ensuring that thousands of people had a chance to cook dinner or wash their hands. Public transport became a link between the large water treatment plants that began to appear in the city and the end user in the residential area. It was a victory for logistics over chaos. Municipal transport reached places where there were no tracks, covering the needs of the "gray zones" of urban infrastructure. For many Mykolaiv residents, the appearance of a trolleybus carrying water has become a symbol of the fact that the city lives, that the authorities have not removed themselves, but are looking for a way out even in a hopeless situation. This was an example of how civilian infrastructure can be mobilized for humanitarian purposes faster and more efficiently than any international mission. The Mykolaiv experience of using electric transport as a water carrier is unique. It is about the ingenuity of desperation and how old Soviet rails and copper wires suddenly became part of a system that saves from dehydration. It was a daily routine: collect water, go to the line, distribute, return, dial again. And so it was under fire, in heat and cold, until the first stationary backfiltration points appeared in the city. This period will go down in history as the time when public transport in Mykolaiv finally ceased to be just a business or service, but became part of a fortress city that refused to surrender to the mercy of the enemy and thirst. Volunteer front "Water for Mykolaiv" has become a matter of neighboring regions of Ukraine. Already in April, an unprecedented logistics operation began. Caravans of trucks and water carriers stretched from Odesa, Kropyvnytskyi, Dnipro and other cities. Volunteers carried bottled drinking water, large tanks were placed on railway platforms (Fig. 1.23). A separate page in history was the "amphibious assault" from Odesa, a neighboring city that was the first to "lend a shoulder". Odessa water carriers have become a common occurrence on the streets of Mykolaiv. The organization of water distribution required clarity: online maps of pick-up points were created, volunteers coordinated queues to avoid stampede and conflicts. International organizations such as the Red Cross and UNICEF began to install large water tanks ("cubes") in sleeping areas, which were filled daily. 35