Original by Yevdokia “Dunya” Sheremetyeva published on littlehirosima blog; translated from Russian by J.Hawk
The UAF destroyed Pervomaysk’s water supply back in Spring 2015.
Ever since then, the city with the acting mayor Olga Ishchenko is trying to restore the supply.
It’s very complicated and difficult.
The restoration of water supply means drilling at least four wells to create sufficient pressure for the water tower.
It’s a difficult and, more importantly, expensive process.
Lugansk has almost no money for it. “Use your own funds.”
These “own funds” represent money which the city receives from collecting utility bills, etc.
Considering that many have no work at all, that some have no homes and live in dormitories just trying to survive and start life from nothing, that some have left, one can imagine just how many “own funds” the city has at its disposal.
I want to thank all of those who care about that city like about their own. A separate thanks to all those foreigners, by now my permanent readers, who worry for Pervomaysk.
Helping individual families is important. But restoring water is far more so. It means the ability to wash, cook, heat, etc.
After the most recent article in which we wrote about buying the pump, I ran into a V Kontakte group where some commented “We got the money, now where’s the water?”.
It’s unfortunate that many people do not understand what it takes to restore water supply.
It’s unfortunate that people do not see what kind of hellish labor it is, in the absence of money and support.
Olya and her team are doing all they can.
I’ve seen that myself.
Once Olya and I were distributing food packets.
Her phone never stopped ringing.
–What happened? Gas? Did you call the utility? They aren’t answering? Just a minute.
–Why can’t you be reached? There is a leak at the following address, hurry! They are waiting!
And so on without a pause.
When we saw criticism on social media, we were greatly upset.
Thank God, there isn’t much criticism, and the majority understand the difficulty of her task.
But the guys, with Olya at the helm, are working on it.
They don’t have water either, like the rest of the population.
The city administration and other buildings use buckets to flush toilets.
And Olya shares all of the city’s hardships.