The Cabinet of Ministers has not yet allocated money for the construction of a water pipeline for Mykolaiv, although they are already building ₴13.4 billion for the cities of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast

The Ingulets River, where Mykolaiv receives its water, March 2024, photo: Serhii Ovcharyshyn/NykVesty

For two years, the government did not allocate funds for the construction of a new water supply system to provide Mykolaiv with quality water.

This is evidenced by the changes to the Cabinet of Ministers Resolution №566, approved on April 29, 2024, writes NikVesti.

According to the document, in 2023, the government allocated 8.2 billion hryvnias for the construction of new water mains in the Dnipropetrovsk region, and 5.1 billion hryvnias this year.

At the same time, the document specifies the construction of a main water pipeline from New Odesa and the reconstruction of the Zhovtneve reservoir in the Mykolaiv region, but the funds for these needs were not allocated in 2023 and are not provided for in 2024.

People's deputy of Ukraine Oleksandr Pasichnyi explained in a comment to NikVesti that the government is considering the possibility of building a new water pipeline for Mykolaiv at the expense of European partners. It is for this purpose, he says, that the region was added to the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers.

«All these sums go to the liquidation of the consequences of the explosion of the Kakhovka reservoir and they concern the Dnipropetrovsk region. As far as we are concerned, this decision (amendments to the Cabinet resolution, — note) is about the possibility of attracting funds from European banks to the work. Now there is no decision on the amount of funds. The Cabinet of Ministers provided an opportunity to attract funds not only from the state budget, but also from European partners. Now they are still calculating how much it might cost, and later there will be some appropriate decisions, but for now it is about the possibility,» explained Oleksandr Pasichny.

Changes to Cabinet Resolution No. 566, approved on April 29, 2024

Changes to Cabinet Resolution No. 566, approved on April 29, 2024

Changes to Cabinet Resolution No. 566, approved on April 29, 2024

Changes to Cabinet Resolution No. 566, approved on April 29, 2024

Changes to Cabinet Resolution No. 566, approved on April 29, 2024

Changes to Cabinet Resolution No. 566, approved on April 29, 2024

Why was there salt water in Mykolaiv in March?

Mykolaiv was left without water for some time after the Dnieper aqueduct was damaged. Later, salt water from the estuary was introduced into the network, and today the city receives river water. In terms of its quality, it is inferior to the Dnipro river, but it is still better than the Lyman river. In this way, almost half a million people in Mykolaiv receive better quality technical water in their homes, says the explainer of NikVesti «Why is the water salty again in Mykolaiv? We explain.»

But from the beginning of March 2024, the people of Mykolaiv noticed that the quality of the water in the taps deteriorated — it became saltier and took on a more yellow color than usual.

The municipal enterprise «Mykolaivvodokanal» commented on the deterioration of the quality of water in the citizens' taps only on March 15. They explained that the deterioration of water quality «is caused by natural and man-made factors», and also added that «there are no simple and quick solutions to such complex issues, but work in this direction continues».

It turned out that the state-owned enterprise «Kryvbasshahtzakryttia», which is located upstream of the place of water intake for Mykolaiv, dumped water from its sumps into the river. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine gave him permission to do this until March 15, 2024, as evidenced by the relevant order «On the discharge of excess return water into the Inhulets River». In fact, we are talking about water, which, after use with the help of technical facilities, enterprises return to rivers in the form of sewage, mine, quarry or drainage water.

However, the main condition of this permission from the Cabinet of Ministers is that the enterprise must comply with individual regulations. That is, the content of chlorides (salts, — note) in Inhulets should not exceed the maximum permissible concentration (MPC) of 350 milligrams per cubic decimeter (per liter, — note). For this purpose, mine waters must enter Ingulets together with fresh water, which would dilute them and reduce the percentage of mineralization. However, it turned out that this indicator was exceeded more than 4 times.

Unlike the Mykolaiv state eco-inspectors, the Dnipro inspectors did not see an excess of chloride (salt) content in Ingulka during the discharge of mine water into the river by the enterprises of Kryvbas.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal reacted to the latest article of NikVesti regarding his scandalous decision to allow the discharge of mine waters to the state-owned enterprise «Kryvbasshahtozakryttia» into the river from which Mykolaiv receives its water. He held a meeting at which he «instructed to ensure uninterrupted supply of technical water to Mykolaiv.»

And in April 2024, the government of Ukraine allocated 125.5 million hryvnias for the water supply of Mykolaiv.

Later it became known that a new main water main to supply Mykolaiv with water will be laid from New Odesa. The client of the works will be the Service for Reconstruction and Development of Infrastructure in the Mykolaiv Oblast.

What about the water in Mykolaiv?

Back in April 2022, Russian troops destroyed the water pipeline through which Mykolaiv received drinking water. Despite constant shelling, the workers of Mykolaivvodokanal tried to restore it, but without success.

The damaged water pipeline «Dnipro - Mykolaiv», which passes through the Kherson region, 2022

The damaged water pipeline «Dnipro - Mykolaiv», which passes through the Kherson region, 2022

Employees of Mykolaivvodokanal restore the water supply. Photo: NikVesti

In the same year , NikVesti found out how dangerous the water in Mykolaivka's taps is for consumption. It turned out that it contains enterococci, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, toxic elements, has an increased content of chlorides, sulfates, dry residue, etc.

More information about what threatens the people of Mykolaiv from the use of «technical» water and what awaits the residents of the city in the future — we laid out in the material «Mykolaiv. The city that holds the defense of the south suffers from thirst.»

In March 2023, the director of Mykolaivvodokanal, Borys Dudenko, announced the possible threat of destruction of the sewage system due to the influence of salt water. According to him, over the past year, the water utility has eliminated more than 1,000 leaks, and after the start of the supply of salty water, the number of accidents per day has increased to 10-15 times.

The European Investment Bank has approved additional credit financing of 20 million euros to improve water supply and drainage in Mykolaiv under the Municipal Infrastructure Development Program of Ukraine.

Before that, it was planned to allocate 1.2 billion hryvnias from the state budget for the restoration of the water supply system in Mykolaiv. Such a step is necessary for the city, because salt water corrodes the pipes and over time the entire water supply system will have to be changed in the city, explained the director of the water supply company, Borys Dudenko.

At the same time, the head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, Vitalii Kim, considers his team's decision to supply the city with «technical» water from the Southern Bug after the water main was damaged to be correct.

Currently, the Vodokanal is considering six options for arranging a new water intake site to provide Mykolaiv with drinking water. These searches began in the summer of 2022. At that time, the general director of the water company, Borys Dudenko, talked about the options from where to get the necessary amount of water to fill the city's water supply system and its 24-hour operation.

• the first option is to go higher along the riverbed of the Southern Bug, choose a place with high-quality fresh water, build a water intake station there, lay a pipeline to Mykolaiv;
• the second is to continue pumping water from the Dnipro-Buzka estuary, but to install industrial-scale reverse osmosis units. Such installations are very energy-consuming.

Already in August 2023, the department of capital construction and support of development projects of the Mykolaiv RMA announced a tender for the reconstruction of 12 sections of water mains damaged by salt water in different areas of the city for a total amount of 1 billion 348 million hryvnias.

In September 2023, the head of Mykolaiv RMA Vitalii Kim announced the possible deterioration of water quality in the taps of Mykolaiv residents. At the same time, he believes that currently the water from the taps of the people of Mykolaiv is better in terms of quality than «most water in Europe».

Currently, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is personally dealing with the issue of restoring the supply of drinking water to Mykolaiv.

In Berlin, on February 19, the Eastern Committee of the German Economy signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Mykolaiv Water Hub.