Yes! I actually looked into Crimea water sources a couple of days ago—when someone at MoA asked if RU had constructed desalination plants. Good question. I was astounded by how difficult it was to locate either RU or UA facilities reporting, and I hadn't known that Crimea has always been arid. (note topographical map above) Also, how very deeply G7 press is committed to propounding RF's ILLEGAL ANNEXATION of Crimea in 2014 and deprivations afflicting the population ever since since then. Naturally, I was curious HOW exactly people fed themselves after Ukraine dammed the canal—not to mention supplied water for "traditional" Tatar ppl's RICE cultivation—then declared allegiance to their oppressors' UNPROVOKED WAR OF AGGRESSION.

This piece is typical: moscowtimes | North Crimean Canal Fills With Water After Russian Forces Destroyed Dam, Mar 4, 2022

The North Crimean Canal has begun to fill with water, the Russian state news service RIA reported on Friday. The canal brought water from the Dnipro River to Crimea. The service reports that the canal is slowly filling water and is expected to be made usable on April 15.

Why did UA.gov dam the canal in 2014 to "their own people"?

Ukrainian officials reported that the Russian authorities did not pay for water delivery [transit fees!], and subsequently Ukraine dammed up the canal.

A 2015 study in a Russian journal reports that 85% of the water in Crimea came via the canal, of which 72% was used for agriculture, 10% for industry

82% of total import? This was a priority problem until it wasn't.

and 18% for drinking water and other public needs.

The study has shown that the territorial redistribution of local water resources (river runoff and groundwater) can provide Crimea with drinking and public water. However, the shortage of irrigation water remains a problem, because the region does not have water resources to the extent necessary for irrigated agriculture. ...We believe that a major way to decrease the water resource shortage and to meet agricultural and industrial needs is [KEY WORD] desalination of seawater.

• Russia Considers Building Desalination Plants in Crimea (June 2014)
• Aerospace ​Technology for ​Modern ​Desalination ​Plants in ​Coastal and ​Arid Regions (2018)
• An Offshore Wind-Power-Based Water Desalination Complex as a Response to an Emergency in Water Supply to Northern Crimea (2019)
• geopoliticalmonitor | The Water Crisis in Crimea (2020)
• Russia's first seawater desalination plant will be built in Crimea (2020)
• DW | Danish [Seimens!] pumps supply water to Crimea (2021)
• suspilne.ua | Seawater desalination project in the occupied Crimea. What is known (2022), photo dated 2017
• mdpi | Changes in the Water Surface Area of Reservoirs of the Crimea Peninsula and Artificial Increases in Precipitation as One of the Possible Solutions to Water Shortages (2022)