Sykhomlyn: Construction of water pipeline from New Odesa allowed to reduce the cost of new treatment plants for Mykolaiv by 2.5 times

Construction of a new water supply system for Mykolaiv, 22 May 2025, photo: Daryna Melnychuk, NikVesti

The construction of new water treatment facilities in Mykolaiv was previously estimated at 132 million euros. However, the construction of the water supply system from Nova Odesa reduced the cost of these works by 2.5 times, as the water quality in that section of the Southern Bug is better than expected.

Serhii Sukhomlyn , head of the State Agency for Infrastructure Recovery and Development, told NikVesti.

«When the city of Mykolaiv was developing a wastewater treatment plant for the water utility with the European Investment Bank and international experts, the cost of this plant was supposed to be 132 million euros. Because they were counting on a different water intake and a high salt content. And the water from New Odesa is much better in quality and this makes it possible to reduce the cost of the treatment plant for Mykolaiv by about 2.5 times,» explained Serhii Sukhomlyn.

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The Head of the State Agency added that his main task is to launch high-quality water supply to Mykolaiv in August 2025. To this end, the state is not only building a new water supply system, but is also reconstructing the water treatment facilities of the water utility.

«My task from the state is to build a high-quality water supply system for Mykolaiv very quickly and efficiently, and I will fulfil it. Mykolaiv residents will receive high-quality water that meets sanitary standards in August. But they will get absolutely superior quality water only when new treatment plants are built and when the networks are replaced. Because one does not work without the other,» said Sukhomlyn.

Read also the article NikVesti «Tired of hauling those water jugs». Will Mykolaiv get drinking water in 2025?».

As a reminder, the reconstruction of the water utility's treatment facilities, which are needed to launch a new water supply system in Mykolaiv, requires about 70 million hryvnias. And after the new water supply system is launched in autumn 2025, the water in the taps of Mykolaiv residents will meet sanitary standards.

Water supply for Mykolaiv

It has been more than three years since Russian troops damaged the water supply pipeline that supplied Mykolaiv with water. Since then, the city of almost half a million people has been without a centralised supply of quality water. Currently, Mykolaiv residents receive water from a backup source, which raises many questions about the quality of this water and the salt content in it. The salt water damaged 1,200 kilometres of the city's water supply network. Borys Dudenko, director of «Mykolaivvodokanal», said that it is impossible to replace the entire length of the network that was damaged by salt water. As of August 2024, only about 3 kilometres of the network had been replaced.

All this time, representatives of state and local authorities were looking for ways to restore drinking water supply in Mykolaiv. The final solution was found in 2024: a new water supply line would be laid from Nova Odesa, and the money was allocated from the state budget.

The regional recovery service even selected contractors who will work according to the principle of «design-build». They are three companies, each of which is responsible for one of the three work areas: «Ukrtransmist», «Rostdorstroi» and «Autostrada». However, later both the client and the construction contractor were changed. The customer for the construction of the new water pipeline was the Service for Infrastructure Restoration and Development in Dnipropetrovsk region, and the contractor was the group of companies «Avtostrada».

The future water pipeline for Mykolaiv is expected to be built and launched by autumn 2025, said Serhii Sukhomlyn, head of the State Agency for Reconstruction. Back during a conference in Berlin in 2024, First Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Korniienko, answering a question from NikVesti, said that the lack of drinking water in Mykolaiv was one of the biggest problems in Ukraine that the state should solve in the near future. And President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has ordered the construction of a new water supply system to provide Mykolaiv with drinking water «under the fast track option» — drinking water should be available by the summer of 2025. The government has already approved the programme.

Solar power plants are going to be installed on the water supply system for Mykolaiv, which will reduce the cost of water tariffs for the city's residents, said Vitalii Kim, head of the RMA. At the same time, the contractor «Autostrada» explained that they decided to lay a new water supply system for Mykolaiv from Nova Odesa, as it is the «closest site with good quality drinking water». They also showed photos of the construction of the new water supply system.

Still need more purified water

Although a new water supply system for Mykolaiv is promised to be built by autumn 2025, this does not guarantee that the city will immediately receive drinking water, as a new water treatment system needs to be built, Kristina Mikulova, head of the European Investment Bank's Eastern Europe Regional Centre, told NikVesti.

At the same time, Deputy Mayor of Mykolaiv and head of the city's recovery working group Serhii Koreniev said that the Mykolaiv Recovery Agency is working to upgrade the wastewater treatment plant and launch it simultaneously with the new water supply system. And Vitalii Kim, head of the Mykolaiv Regional Water Authority, said he did not want to rush to take out a large loan for the construction of water treatment facilities for Mykolaiv, despite the EIB's readiness to allocate more than €100 million.

Later, it became known that the State Agency for the Restoration and Development of Infrastructure is currently upgrading the water treatment system for Mykolaiv on behalf of the government.

Together with the constructed water pipeline, this will allow the city to launch a centralised drinking water supply in August 2025, said Serhii Sukhomlyn, head of the State Agency for Infrastructure Recovery and Development.