Jaroslav Holik, deputy chairman of the Czech Lower House’s Environmental Protection Committee, initiated the international cooperation on irrigating Crimea.
The peninsula lacks fresh water for agriculture. Holik told Sputnik News that the floodgates of the canal providing water from the Dnieper River had been blocked. The water had been used to irrigate land in Crimea’s north and central regions.
“Crimeans are currently badly in need of fresh water, which is why they’ve given up growing rice, which requires intensive irrigation,” Holik said.
“There are specialists in Russia, the Czech Republic and Israel whose joint efforts could add to resolving the problem of supplying water and irrigation to Crimea so as to stop it from becoming another desert,” he said.
The specialists, entrepreneurs and politicians are due to visit Prague this autumn “to discuss all the details and define specific terms” related to the proposed irrigation project.
“I think that we will launch the project in 2018. There are already plans for the international group dealing with the issues of cleaning contaminated water and its re-use. In addition, we plan to create channels that will prevent water from flowing from the mountains into the sea,” Holik explained.
Holik said that he does not “care about this question” of being affected by anti-Russian EU sanctions against Crimea.
“Let’s assume that Ukraine banned me from entering its territory for five years, so what? I reiterate that we are not talking about a political demarche from our side. We are only concerned about environmental protection and we want to prevent the unique Crimean Peninsula from drying up,” he said.
He added that pressure to lift anti-Russian sanctions and recognition of Crimea as an essential part of Russia will continue to increase.
“As for me, I’m all for it. After all, Crimea’s reunification with Russia took place legally, in line with a referendum which was monitored by observers from 23 countries, including the Czech Republic,” Holik said. Czech observers had confirmed that there were no irregularities during the voting process, even though Czech media later called their findings into question.
The European Council said on Monday that the European Union member states’ foreign ministers had extended sanctions against Crimea that were due to expire this Friday by one year, even though Crimea had made their choice in a democratic vote in full accordance with international law and the UN Charter.
Over 90 percent of Crimea’s residents voted in favor of the reunification in a referendum