The aim of research was to study the water use in the Salgir basin. Rivers are specific objects of study, as they experience anthropogenic influence. Irrational use of surface water leads to the depletion of stocks and the deterioration of water quality parameters in them. Surface waters are exposed to active dynamic changes, which are affected by human activities influencing their natural dynamics (water abstraction, contaminated wastewater discharge to water bodies). Anthropogenic pressure on water bodies from point sources is constantly increasing, due to population growth and typical urbanization processes. After the North-Crimean Canal closure the role of local water resources has increased, and a particular attention has been paid to the redistribution of surface and ground waters of the peninsula, which has affected the main river of the country. The main problems of the Salgir river basin are the increasing water withdrawal from the river and waste water discharge into it. A further increase in water withdrawal of its basin for meeting the national Crimean economy needs, particularly for crop irrigation can lead to a negative transformation of the ecological system of water bodies (in surface waters it is a change in biodiversity and the loss of self-purification ability, in underground it’s a deterioration of the quality and quantity characteristics of conditioned water). The further use of the Salgir river basin waters as one of the main sources of peninsula water supply will be impossible without solving these issues.
Keywords: river Salgir, river basin, anthropogenic pressure, wastewater, water withdrawal, contamination.
