The water mains on Soborna Street in Mykolaiv are being reconstructed with funding from Denmark at a cost of nearly ₴2.8 million

A water main is being reconstructed in the centre of Mykolaiv — the work will be funded by Danish partners. Photo: NikVesti archive

A section of the water main on Soborna Street in Mykolaiv — from Admiralska to Spaska — is being reconstructed. The works, costing almost 2.8 million hryvnias, will be funded by the Danish Refugee Council (DRC).

This is according to data from the Prozorro public procurement system, as reported by NikVesti.

The client for the works is the municipal enterprise «Mykolaivvodokanal». The estimated cost of the reconstruction was 2,794,324 hryvnias. The works are to be completed by 30 October 2026.

According to the project documentation, the contractor will reconstruct a 125-millimetre-diameter water main in the section between Admiralska and Spaska Streets, as well as reconnect existing consumers to the new network.

The new water main will be laid using PE100 polyethylene pipes, which have a service life of 50 years. The project also involves the construction of underground reinforced concrete manholes and chambers, which are designed to last for at least 25 years.

The water main route will run alongside internal roads and through green spaces.

The tender took place on 9 June. The sole bidder was «Ukrspetsoborudovanie» LLC, which offered to carry out the work for 2,791,322 hryvnias, which is approximately 3,000 hryvnias less than the estimated procurement cost.

It should be noted that the most problematic sections for the water utility in Mykolaiv are the sewerage collectors, which are deteriorating due to gas corrosion. With the help of international donors, the company plans to step up the work of its rehabilitation workshop and repair the collectors.

The water supply for Mykolaiv: a brief history

It has been more than three years since Russian troops damaged the water pipeline that supplied Mykolaiv with water. Since then, the city, with a population of nearly half a million, has been left without a centralised supply of high-quality water.

Throughout this time, the people of Mykolaiv have been receiving water from a backup source, which raises many questions about the quality of this water and its salt content. The salt water has damaged 1,200 kilometres of the city’s water supply network. Borys Dudenko, director of «Mykolaivvodokanal», stated that it is impossible to replace the entire length of the network that was damaged by the influx of salt water.

For a long time, representatives of central and local government sought ways to restore the drinking water supply in Mykolaiv. A final decision was reached in 2024: a new water pipeline will be laid from Nova Odesa, with funding allocated from the state budget.

The regional reconstruction service even selected contractors who would work on a ‘design-build’ basis. These were three companies, each responsible for one of the three sections of the work: «Ukrtransmist», «Rostdorstroi» and «Avtostrada». However, both the client and the construction contractor were subsequently changed. The client for the construction of the new water main became the Infrastructure Restoration and Development Service in the Dnipropetrovsk region, and the contractor was the «Avtostrada» group of companies.

The new water pipeline for Mykolaiv was commissioned on 7 October 2025 — it was connected to the water utility’s networks.

As of June 2026, the new preliminary water treatment facilities had been put into trial operation. They were built using remaining funds from the experimental government «Design-Build» project. The facilities are currently on the balance sheet of and managed by the Regional Water Resources Office in Mykolaiv Oblast, however, there are plans to transfer them to the «Mykolaivvodokanal» municipal utility in the future, as they are located on its premises and are intended to form a single technological complex with it.