The Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food predicts that after three years of water shortage in the North-Crimean channel about 400,000 hectares of irrigated Crimean land will become infertile.

According to a press release, the social standard of living of Crimeans will deteriorate.

The ministry said that these lands serve more than 700,000 people living mainly in the north and in the central part of Crimea. These are Krasnoperekopsk, Rozdolne, Pervomaisk, Kirovske, Dzhankoi, Krasnohvardiysk, Chornomorske districts, part of Saki and Simferopol.

"Now these districts have a big problem, not only with conducting agricultural activities, but also water use. Many of these areas used artesian wells and water from their own groundwater sources, which, in turn, were also replenished with water from the North-Crimean channel," reads the report citing Adviser to the Minister of Agricultural Policy and Food of Ukraine Oleksandr Liyev.

According to him, water production at the majority of wells is so week that 26 rural communities have been forced to seek alternative water supplies.