Concrete blocks on the bed of the Tnya River: how agribusiness is turning Zhytomyr's water bodies into stagnant puddles

If you thought the future of dystopias about bloody wars for fresh water was to arrive somewhere in the deserts of the Middle East, welcome to picturesque Polissya.

Here, the laws of hydrology and the Water Code have capitulated to agrarian enthusiasm: the small Tnya River was simply blocked with concrete slabs, turned into a chain of overgrown, silt-filled puddles so that elite potato plantations would not feel thirst. While villagers go to neighbors with empty buckets, begging for a liter of water, and ecologists rack their brains over toxic algae, agricultural producers philosophically explain: you cannot allow water to uncontrollably run into the Black Sea when it can be put to use under the tuber’s root.

This summer, the flow of the Tnya near the village of Nesoloni in Zvyagel district of Zhytomyr region stopped. The State Agency of Water Resources cut irrigation water norms for farmers three times, but by August the Tnya nearly disappeared. A reporter for Texty.org.ua went to understand what is happening with one of Ukraine’s many small rivers.

— And the water in the wells? — I ask a fellow passenger on the bus to the village Tupalky in Zvyagelsky district.

— Bad… Some have it, and many do not.

— And what do they do when there is none?

— Well what? They buy it.

— And what about water for the cattle?

— They fetch it from neighbors, if there is any. My mother has some. A little. But she does not let anyone fetch. Perhaps it is a sin, but what can she do if she runs out?

Usually there is a minimum of water at the beginning of autumn, and this year it was even in summer. So if rain doesn’t come (6 autumn rains began in September, though modest. — Editor), it will get worse.