Peculiarities of operation of drinking water supply systems in wartime

The military aggression of the Russian Federation and the illegal actions of the aggressor, aimed at the deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure, proved the vulnerability of centralized water supply systems. Thus, in just a few days from the beginning of the war, consumers of the cities of Mariupol, Melitopol, Volnovakha, Chernihiv, Sumy, and others were completely or partially without water supply. In addition to the humanitarian catastrophe due to hostilities, the cessation of centralized water supply as a factor in the vulnerability of life support systems, was actively used by the occupiers in the information war to create panic among civilians, demoralize people, mental disorders and more. This article analyzes the main factors of vulnerability of centralized water supply systems in Ukraine, and proposes technical and organizational measures to reduce them, which can be implemented both in the short term and in the long run. The factor of sustainability of water supply systems in wartime should not be considered as the only direction of planning their development, but recent events show that it is certainly a priority. Therefore, the recommendations developed in this article can be applied by water supply companies both in operational activities and in strategic planning of the development of water supply systems in the future, in particular during the development of optimization schemes.