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WASH Cluster Incident Report No. 88 - 04/11/2017

Countries
Ukraine
Sources
UNICEF
+ 1 more
Publication date

According to information from ‘Voda Donbasa’ Donetsk Filter Station (DFS) was shelled during the night of November 3rd/4th, and there was a “near miss” of stored gaseous chlorine. In the morning of 4th November 2017, a new crater on the small approach road to the Chlorine warehouse was recorded, some 50 metres from the warehouse. Shrapnel struck and damaged lighting on this same road to warehouse. According to staff it was only by sheer luck that the chlorine warehouse itself avoided a direct hit, and gas pipes transferring chlorine to parts of the site were also luckily undamaged.

During shelling, and most of the night, all staff took cover in the on-site bomb shelter and fortunately none were wounded. At the current time DFS continue to operate in normal mode in spite of the hit.

The WASH Cluster expresses grave concern over this incident as 900 kg bottles of chlorine gas are routinely stored and used at the Donetsk Filer Station for the purposes of treating drinking water. Should one gas bottle be damaged, it may have fatal consequences within a 200m radius or more, and could also badly affect people several kilometres downwind. On 24h February 2017 the Chlorine store was previously hit, directly, again without serious leakage of gas.

DFS supplies water to the following settlements: Avdiivka, Kruta Balka, Vasylivka, Mineralne, Yakovlivka, Verkhniotoretske, part of Yasynuvata and western areas of Donetsk city, and it officially provides water in total to 345,309 people (December 2016 figures from Voda Donbasa).