The issue of water in Mykolaiv. Is it possible to restore the Zhovtneve Reservoir and how will it help the city?

The city of Mykolaiv was left without a centralized drinking water supply due to Russian shelling in April 2022. For several months, the city lived without water in networks at all, after that water supply was established from the Southern Bug River. Now, in fact, for a year and a half, the taps of Mykolaiv residents have been flowing with technical water that is not suitable for consumption and cooking.

From time to time, various alternative options regarding the provision of water supply to the city are voiced in the public space. One of these options is the restoration of the Zhovtneve Reservoir, which has not been used for almost 20 years. NikVesti decided to find out what the prospects are for realizing such intentions.

The October reservoir has not been used for 16 years

The Zhovtneve reservoir in the Vitovskyi district, near the Kulbakyne microdistrict, was built in 1957 and was used as a strategic supply of fresh water for the industrial and domestic water supply of Mykolaiv.

The project of the Upper Inhulets irrigation system, which included the Zhovtneve reservoir, was developed by the Odesa branch of «Ukrdiprokomunbud» in 1954. Its volume at the time of the start of operation was 15 thousand m3, and later it grew to 32 thousand m3 of water (at maximum filling), and the depth in some places was up to 28 meters. It was filled annually, in the autumn-winter period (160 days), with Dnieper and Inhulets water.

In 2006, as a result of the slow water exchange, siltation of the reservoir occurred, and the mineralization of the water increased significantly. Along with the appearance in the water of a strong putrid smell, which turns into mercaptan, there was an increase in the color of the water from 30 to 75 degrees, the dry residue from 300 mg/dm3 to 1120 mg/dm3, the content of chlorides and sulfates doubled, oxidation.

The city management made a decision to drain water from the Zhovtneve Reservoir to clean the silt layer. In addition, maintenance and protection of the reservoir became unaffordable for the city budget. In this connection, the Mykolaiv city government, whose mayor was Volodymyr Chaika at the time, repeatedly appealed to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine regarding the allocation of state funds for the implementation of restoration works to ensure the operation of the Zhovtneve reservoir. However, at that time this issue was not too urgent for the state authorities.

In 2008, the project to clean and restore the reservoir was postponed. For 8 years, no one raised the question of the feasibility of carrying out works on the restoration of the reservoir, neither in the city nor at the state level.

In 2016, a video shot by a quadcopter was published online showing the territory of the «Zhovtneve «Sea», as the reservoir was called. In 2018, journalists of the Inter TV channel filmed a story where they showed that a landfill had already formed on the territory of the former reservoir.

«About 10 years ago, everything was different: a large reservoir, a lot of fish and a dense forest. Now the reservoir has dried up, and new and new piles of garbage are appearing in its place. And pits. Meticulous citizens remove the soil from there,» said an Inter story 5 years ago.

The issue of resuming the operation of the reservoir has been voiced since 2020, but it has not become a priority

In 2020, the issue of restoration of the Zhovtneve Reservoir was raised to a new level by Olena Kiseliova, a member of the Mykolaiv City Council. At that time, she expressed the opinion that the utility company Mykolaivvodokanal should seriously address the problem with water reserves and restore the operation of the Zhovtneve Reservoir.

«It's scary to think what will happen if... It seems to me that the strategic objects that should be owned by the monopolist — Vodokanal, which is also a strategic enterprise, cannot be the subject of discussion. The subject of discussion should be the possibility and phased recovery of them. When everyone forgot that the water utility does not have a supply of water — it is very sad. And this sadness happens later in our apartments. Plans are already being made today that sooner or later the water supply company will be able to provide water hourly, we know examples of many cities where this happens. Those who are interested in this topic, and it really flashes in the mass media, which predict a dry year not only, but also a five-year one... We are coming to natural cataclysms. And the result of cataclysms is a sufficient amount of drinking water. I don't want to scare anyone right now, but we remember this mantra very well: drinking water and food will one day become the greatest asset on the planet. In some countries it is really appreciated, Ukraine was a blessed country, especially Mykola. We have not had a shortage of water, we have never experienced it. Moreover, the culture of our everyday life allows us not to divide water into potable and technical water. But with the growth and development of new water supply networks, we perfectly understand that if the number of subscribers increases and the issue of strategic volume is not resolved, then sooner or later we will face the fact of a deficit that can only be covered by an hourly water supply schedule,» said Olena Kiseliova on the air of the local TV channel NIS-TV in May 2020, a year and a half before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The deputy then insisted that in 2021, the city government should make it a priority to resolve the issue of restoring the Zhovtneve Reservoir: «This problem should be written down as the first item for 2021, some attention, some work in this direction must be carried out. This is not a discussed topic».

She proposed to attract a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for this purpose. It was announced that about 300 million hryvnias were needed for these works, which the city did not have.

However, even then it was not a priority.

Renovate in a short period of time or immerse yourself in a long reconstruction?

After a year and a half without drinking water in Mykolaiv, the thesis about the need to restore the operation of the Zhovtneve Reservoir was again voiced. On September 19, 2023, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities under the President of Ukraine took place. Among the issues discussed was the supply of drinking water to Mykolaiv and the region. The source should continue to be the Dnipro River.

Vitalii Kim, the head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, announced this during a briefing following the results of the meeting.

«I want to talk about one of the big projects that we want to implement in addition to those that we cannot talk about — this is the restoration of the Zhovtneve Reservoir,» said Vitali Kim.

He noted at the time that the Mykolaiv RMA and the regional council will appeal to the Government and the President's Office regarding support for the backup water supply project in Mykolaiv.

«The Zhovtneve Reservoir itself provided this need until 2006, if I'm not mistaken. Therefore, we also have certain problems with water, that there is no reserve reservoir. Therefore, we will seek the support of the Government for this project, despite, on the contrary, the fact that there is a budget deficit and there is a war going on. But this project should be implemented in the future,» Vitali Kim said at the time.

On September 22, commenting on this thesis during a briefing, the general director of «Mykolaivvodokanal» Borys Dudenko said that about 300 million hryvnias are needed to restore the Zhovtneve Reservoir in Mykolaiv. According to him, filling the reservoir will help to provide Mykolaiv residents with water in winter.

«We propose to fill our reservoir, which was stopped 16 years ago. We want to fill it in the state in which it is now. At that time, we plan to restore the pressure pipelines and pumping stations that supplied water to the treatment facilities, and thus have a source of water supply that will provide us in the winter period,» he said then.

According to him, the project is currently under discussion. Making a decision on its implementation depends on the state authorities, since the Mykolaiv Oblast will not be able to implement the project on its own, at the expense of the city and regional budgets.

If the restoration project of the Zhovtneve Reservoir is approved, it may take about three months to complete the work on its implementation.

However, as of the end of November, no decision has been made on this issue.

In a comment to NikVesti, the deputy head of Mykolayiv RMA Valentyn Haidarzhy noted that the regional authorities have turned to relevant ministries regarding this issue.

«Currently, the issue is under consideration, correspondence is ongoing,» the Mykolayiv RMA reported.

Borys Dudenko, director of Mykolaivvodokanal, told NikVesti that in addition to state bodies, the French company Egis is working on the possibility of resuming the operation of the reservoir.

«While the concept is at the stage of discussion. This issue is also being worked on by Egis, a French company that, since the beginning of the year, has been engaged in processing alternative sources of water supply for the city. That is, they will also work on this issue, but it is still multifactorial. Many things need to be taken into account there: technology, water storage, supply. Quite a serious engineering project. And only now is the study underway and the search for funding sources is being conducted in parallel,» said Borys Dudenko.

On August 15, Egis signed a project aimed at restoring the water supply infrastructure in Mykolaiv. This is stated in a publication on the Facebook page of the consulting company.

«In light of the significant damage caused to the infrastructure of Mykolaiv as a result of the Russian attacks and the devastating explosion at the Kakhovska HPP, the city is struggling with an emergency situation regarding the restoration of water supply to the citizens. On August 15, Egis signed the Mykolaiv Emergency Water Project – Feasibility Study update, in which the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is the main client and donor. As part of the project, Egis experts will act as a consultant and work closely with the EBRD and Vodokanal of Mykolaiv to update the feasibility study to take into account damage caused by Russian troops. The main goal of the project is to collect the necessary information, in-depth technical, financial, economic and environmental analysis and develop strategic recommendations necessary for a thorough assessment of the project, its structuring and final approval. This updated study will serve as the basis for confirming and justifying the investment program, which will later be transformed into a comprehensive project design, which will be a necessary step in restoring the city's water supply as soon as possible,» Egis said in the publication.

Borys Dudenko, the director of Mykolaivvodokanal, said that there are actually two options for resuming the operation of the reservoir — the cost of one is about 300 million hryvnias. This will help to carry out priority work and fill the reservoir with water for several months. It was with such a proposal that the company turned to Mykolayiv RMA.

Another proposal also under discussion is a complete reconstruction, effectively building the reservoir «from scratch». Here we are already talking about tens of millions of euros.

The city of Mykolaiv, in a situation where there is no income from the «military» personal income tax, will not be able to implement the first option, not to mention the more expensive one. Therefore, options for attracting state funds, international donors and banks are being considered.

«When I talked about 300 million, 300 million was necessary to fill the reservoir as it is. This decision was not made. It was decided to finalize the issue of complete reconstruction, roughly speaking, the construction of a new reservoir structure at the same place. Not as it is, roughly speaking, the earth, that's all. It will already be a full-fledged reservoir with waterproofing. Now I can't talk about the sums needed to build a new one. I would not operate with these figures now, because they are very conditional,» said Borys Dudenko.

Mykolayiv City Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said in a comment to NikVesti that today the city is working on options for restoring the reservoir and, in general, on the project of a new water intake.

«Its condition does not allow us to do it promptly, because there are risks of flooding of the houses of residents of the Korabelnyi district, as it happened many years ago. We are working on this issue. I reported on this at the last meeting of the Congress of local and regional authorities under the President of Ukraine. In parallel, we are working on the project of a new water intake. International partners help us in this. Currently, the development of a preliminary technical and economic justification for determining the location of an alternative water intake is underway. This is done for us by the international company Egis with financing from the European Investment Bank. We do not spend budget funds on this. By the end of the year, we should receive a feasibility study. Next, we will also work with international partners to develop the project itself and look for financing for our own construction. Restoration of high-quality water supply in Mykolaiv is a long and expensive process. But for me, as the mayor, this is a priority,» said Oleksandr Sienkevych.

Unfortunately, today we cannot predict how the correspondence between the regional authorities and the government on the issue of restoring the reservoir will end. It is not known whether the state budget has the capacity to provide the city with a strategic water supply. It is also not known how long such reconstruction may take. However, it is important that this issue is not shelved as it has been for 16 years.

Yuliia Boichenko, Kateryna Sereda, NikVesti