It will take 3 to 7 years to restore irrigation system in southern Ukraine - Ukrainian agrarian policy minister

MOSCOW. June 9 (Interfax) - The Kakhovka canal used to supply water to more than half a million hectares of land in the south and east of Ukraine, so the irrigation problem will be the biggest in the agriculture and it will take three to seven years to solve it, Ukrainian Agrarian Policy Minister Nikolai Solsky said in a television live broadcast on Friday, as quoted by Ukrainian media.

"The repercussions of the irrigation halt are much bigger. Not a half a million hectares but one million to one and a half million hectares won't be used for agriculture to the full extent. It will take three to five or seven years to restore irrigation. And this should become a priority. Since it is not solely the question of agribusiness or environment, but also a social issue. Farmers are funding social life in villages nearby. They pay taxes, pay their landlords, who are mostly elderly people, pay on membership shares," Solsky said.

The land areas that did not have any irrigation systems will suffer, too, as farmers will not have to cultivate the lands, he said.

Solsky recalled that the agrarians of southern Ukraine used to get most of their stable income from harvesting the fields with irrigation systems.

Prior to the dam collapse, the Kakhovka reservoir was a source for two irrigation and water supply systems, which are the Kakhovka system and the North Crimea Canal, he said. These two systems were built based on water levels in order to save on electric power needed for pumps. Today, as water levels have dropped, water just cannot reach the systems. To raise the water levels there, the dam has to be restored, Solsky said.