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 3.1. "BLUE ECONOMY" OF MYKOLAIV: THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE PLASTIC PEN When historians of the future study the resistance of Mykolaiv in 2022-2026, they will probably pay attention not only to fortifications, but also to ordinary plastic eggplant. It has become the main symbol of urban life, and the path from the water spill point to the apartment is a daily survival route. In social networks, where Mykolaiv residents shared pain and humor, a unique "water folklore" was imprinted, which best conveys the atmosphere of these years. Household fitness For many citizens, the turn of 2026 has become a symbolic mark — more than four years of daily rising of water to the floors. In apartment buildings, especially in "Stalinka" and "Khrushchev" without elevators, this process has turned into a special ritual. One of the residents aptly described this experience not as a burden, but as "positive physical activity". This self-irony became a defensive reaction of the city. Instead of falling into despair from the hard routine, Mykolaiv residents turned bringing bottles to the upper floors into a kind of "frontline fitness". Over the years, family responsibilities have finally been redistributed around plastic containers: someone was responsible for delivery, someone was responsible for climbing to the floor, and someone was responsible for rational use. Trivia Engineering: Color and Reliability Test In this specific life, over the years, its own folk "science of plastic" has been developed. It turned out that in the survival system of Nikolaev, even the color of the removable eggplant handle is of strategic importance. This became a topic for lively discussions in urban communities, where people shared experiences that cannot be found in any textbook on ecology. "Blue pens last significantly longer than red ones," this observation has become almost an axiom for local "water carriers". People have learned to instantly assess the reliability of containers by the shade of plastic and the shape of fasteners. Red handles often failed at the most crucial moment, and imported containers from humanitarian goods, as it turned out, were not designed for repeated use in the harsh realities of the Ukrainian city at all — the handles on them were torn after several trips to the bottling point (Fig. 3.1). 87