WATER WITHDRAWAL DYNAMICS IN THE POST-SOVIET SPACE

The article examines water withdrawal changes in the territory of the former USSR after its collapse up to 2020. The water withdrawal dynamics and the structure of water use are analyzed both in the post-Soviet space as a whole and in individual sovereign states. A sharp decrease in water withdrawal, especially significant in the 1990s, was revealed for most states, including the largest water consumer, the Russian Federation. The actual water withdrawal in the post-Soviet space turned out to be several times less than predicted for this territory in a number of publications in the 1960s–1980s. Despite the general trend of decreasing water withdrawal in almost the entire post–Soviet space, this process took place at different rates in each sovereign state, most rapidly in the Baltic republics. The changes in the structure of water use are shown – the share of industry water use decreased, while the share of household and, to a lesser extent, agricultural water use increased. The dynamics of water withdrawal in the post-Soviet space and in the world are compared. While in the former USSR it generally decreased compared to the period before 1990, worldwide water intake increased mainly due to irrigated agriculture, and in a number of developed countries it decreased as a result of the introduction of a number of water-saving technologies.

water withdrawal, water users, trends, water resources, USSR, sovereign states, Russian Federation, world in general