OREANDA-NEWS. Over the past decade, the crushing of the Volga River has reached record levels. Residents of the Astrakhan region are predicted due to the current situation, serious problems with water supply and the movement of ferries. Experts of Rosvodresursov believe that one of the main reasons for the threat hanging over 13 settlements in the region is the situation with climate change, Izvestia writes.

Already in the near future, several settlements of the subject are at risk of facing a water shortage, according to experts from the All-Russian Research Institute for Civil Defense and Emergencies of the Ministry of Emergencies of Russia (VNII GO ES).

"A difficult hydrological situation is developing in the Astrakhan region, a disruption in water supply is predicted, which will affect about 10 thousand residents. The stoppage of ferry crossings, a decrease in commercial fish stocks as a result of the difficulty of navigation, as well as freezing phenomena in winter are likely," the ministry said. The water level on the lower Volga as of October 2021 was 20-25 centimeters lower than in the most shallow 2010.

The crumbling of the river is associated with low natural inflows in the past few months, added representatives of Rosvodresursy. The amount of precipitation in the first decade of October was not even a tenth of the norm, the department specified. Oleg Lomakov, head of the “Without Rivers as Without Hands" Foundation, added that small rivers have ceased to bring the same amount of water into the Volga basin.

"Small rivers are used for various economic purposes, there is also a global problem associated with climate change and warming. Now, often after a winter with little snow, a very fast and dynamic spring comes, and the snow is simply devoured by the sun, without having time to go into an aggregate state in the form of water, it simply evaporates. And these small streams have no nutritional resource left," the expert summed up.