The authorities of Mykolaiv expect to receive ₴500 million from the state budget: «Water purification is a big expense»

Mykolaiv expects to receive 500 million hryvnias from the state budget next year.

This was stated by the city mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych in an interview with Ukrinform.

«We are currently working to obtain a subvention from the state budget in the amount of 500 million hryvnias for the KP Mykolaivvodokanal. After all, today even the technical water that is in the taps, we take not from the Dnieper, as before, but from other sources. It requires additional purification, and this is a big expense,» said Oleksandr Sienkevych.

It is worth noting that the state budget of Ukraine for 2025 has allocated 8 billion hryvnias for the construction of a new water pipeline for Mykolaiv to provide the city with drinking water. The State Agency for Reconstruction promises to complete the construction of the new water pipeline in August 2025.

Water supply for Mykolaiv

In May, Mayor Sienkevych expressed hope that the dismissal of Oleksandr Kubrakov from the position of Minister of Community, Territorial Development and Infrastructure would not affect plans to build a new water supply system for the city.

Mustafa Naiiem was also dismissed in June. However, Naiiem himself later responded to the Ministry of Finance's accusations that the Agency had not provided a water supply project in the Mykolaiv region, noting that at the time of his dismissal, the terms of reference for the procurement procedure were already being prepared.

During a briefing on July 11, answering a question from NikVesti, Vitalii Kim said that Mykolaiv has not yet received funds from the government to build a new water pipeline, as the amount has changed. He planned to present the updated project estimate for the government's consideration.

Earlier, the head of the Mykolaiv RMA, Vitalii Kim, told reporters that due to the optimization of the estimate, about 3 billion hryvnias will be needed for the construction of the water pipeline. Although previously it was said that the amount would be from 4 to 8 billion hryvnias.

It is worth noting that in two years the government has not allocated funds for the construction of a new water pipeline to provide Mykolaiv with high-quality water. This is evidenced by the amendments to the Cabinet of Ministers' Resolution №566, approved on April 29, 2024, writes NikVesti. At the same time, in 2023 the government allocated 8.2 billion hryvnias for the construction of new main water pipelines in the Dnipropetrovsk region, and this year — 5.1 billion hryvnias.

During a conference in Berlin, First Vice Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Korniienko, answering a question from NikVesti, stated that the lack of drinking water in Mykolaiv is one of the biggest problems in Ukraine, which the state must solve in the near future.

The head of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction, David Arakhamiia, believes that funds for the construction of a new water supply system for Mykolaiv should be allocated from the reserve fund of the state budget.

On July 23, 2024, Mykolaiv City Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych met with the leadership of the Infrastructure Restoration and Development Service in Mykolaiv Oblast to discuss the process of constructing a water pipeline to supply drinking water.

Later, it became known that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy instructed to build a new water supply system to provide Mykolaiv with drinking water «as a quick option» — drinking water should be available by the summer of 2025. The government has already approved the corresponding program.