Mykolaiv will not take out a loan for the modernisation of sewage treatment plants without state guarantees, as the city has no money

Mayor of Mykolaiv Oleksandr Sienkevych, photo by NikVesti

Mayor of Mykolaiv Oleksandr Sienkevych announced that the city will not be able to take out a loan from the European Investment Bank to modernise new water treatment facilities without state guarantees, as there are no funds in the city budget to repay it.

This is stated in the article NikVesti «The state is building new treatment facilities, and Mykolaiv insists on their modernisation with an EIB loan: what the city will gain from this».

«Listen to me carefully. It should be clear to all our citizens that the city of Mykolaiv cannot secure a loan from the European Investment Bank for the construction of these facilities. I emphasise that without state assistance, we will not be able to complete this project. As of today, we already have to pay more than 400 million hryvnias in loan obligations. The city is not ready to take out another loan in order to pay it off in the future,» said Oleksandr Sienkevych.

In his opinion, the state should assume responsibility for repaying this loan.

«We are not to blame for the fact that the Russians destroyed this water pipeline. We need the state's help, so we believe that the Ministry of Finance should guarantee this loan, and in fact, the repayment of this loan should be made at the state's expense. I have discussed this with representatives of the EIB, with representatives of the Danish government, who plan to co-finance this project, and with all the organisations involved. In other words, we are ready to cooperate in terms of implementing this project, but we are not ready to finance it,»explained Oleksandr Sienkevych.

Read also the article NikVesti «When will Mykolaiv get drinking water in its taps and how much will it cost?»

In particular, it says that new water treatment facilities for centralized water supply in Mykolaiv are promised to be launched as early as January 2026, but they are promised to be fully operational later. They were built with funds saved during the construction of a new water pipeline.

Initially, it was planned to take out an EIB loan for the construction of new water treatment facilities for Mykolaiv, with Denmark providing part of the funding as a grant. The project was expected to take several years to complete and was intended to help provide the city with water of European standards.

However, the head of the State Agency for Reconstruction, Serhii Sukhomlyn, later said that this idea had been abandoned. It was decided to build new water treatment facilities using state funds — those saved during the construction of a new water pipeline for the city.

However, Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych supports the modernisation of new water treatment facilities with a loan from the European Investment Bank, but believes that the state should pay for it.

Water pipeline for Mykolaiv. A bit of history

It has been more than three years since Russian troops damaged the water pipeline that supplied Mykolaiv with water. Since then, the city of almost half a million people centralised supply quality water.

All this time, Mykolaiv residents have been receiving water from a backup source, which raises many questions about of such water and its salt content. Salt water has damaged 1,200 kilometres of the city's water supply network. Boris Dudenko, director of Mykolaivvodokanal, said that it is impossible to replace the entire length of the network that was damaged by the supply of salty water.

For a long time, representatives of the state and local authorities sought options for restoring the drinking water supply in Mykolaiv. A final decision was reached in 2024: a new water pipeline will be laid from Nova Odesa, and the money will be allocated from the state budget.

The regional restoration service even selected contractors who would work on a "design-build" basis. These were three companies, each responsible for one of three sections of the work: Ukrtransmist, Rostdorstroy and Avtostrada. However, both the customer and the construction contractor were subsequently changed. The customer for the construction of the new water pipeline was the Infrastructure Restoration and Development Service in the Dnipropetrovsk region, and the contractor was the Autostrada group of companies.

The new water pipeline for Mykolaiv was put into operation on 7 October 2025 and connected to the water supply network.