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 wastewater was recorded, which is directly related to the operation of the "salty" water supply system. Calls of the Main Pumping Station and the Kakhovka disaster The functioning of the water intake system from Ingulets is impossible without the operation of the Main Pumping Station of the Inhulets River Canal Administration. This facility has become a symbol of the resilience of Ukrainian infrastructure. On June 6, 2023, after Russian troops blew up the dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, a huge wave of water reached the Snihuriv region, where the State Emergency Service is located. The station was flooded, and its unique equipment, which had been operating for decades, ended up under water and silt. This created a real threat of a complete shutdown of water supply for Mykolaiv. The process of restoring the STS has become a unique case. The head of the station, Valery Voronov, who has been working at the facility since 1978, headed the work on the resuscitation of the units. Despite the complexity of the damage, the team managed to: Clean engines and pumps from sludge and debris. Carry out multi-stage drying of electrical components. Perform commissioning work in conditions of a shortage of spare parts. On June 22, 2023, the station started working again. This made it possible to restore the filling of canals and the supply of water to the city treatment facilities of Mykolaiv. Against the backdrop of these events, international partners also helped the communities of the Snihuriv region to equip artesian wells with a depth of 70 meters, which provided alternative drinking water supply to about 30% of the local population. Realizing that the Inhulets River is only a temporary and extremely unsatisfactory solution, the government of Ukraine and international donors initiated the construction of a new water pipeline, which should finally solve the problem of fresh water for Mykolaiv. The project was called "Water supply from New Odesa". Socioeconomic consequences and conclusions The period of water supply to Mykolaiv from the Ingulets River has become one of the most difficult tests for the city community. This stage went down in history as an example of unprecedented resilience, but also as a lesson about the vulnerability of centralized systems in times of total war. The inhabitants of the city suffered significant financial losses due to the quality of the water. Aggressive water from Inhulets massively disabled: electric boilers; washing machines and dishwashers; mixers and shut-off valves in apartments; toilet flush systems. This forced people to spend thousands of hryvnias on repairs and replacement of plumbing, in addition to the cost of buying drinking water at bottling points (there are more than 250 points of issue in the city). An analysis of the situation around the use of the Inhulets River allows us to draw several fundamental conclusions for the future recovery of Ukraine: 42