The director of «Mykolaivvodokanal» stated that water quality has improved, but definitive conclusions will only be available in a year’s time

A woman collects water from a trolleybus serving as a water distribution point, May 2025. Photo: NikVesti

Hennadii Iziumov, director of the municipal utility Mykolaivvodokanal, stated that the quality of tap water in Mykolaiv has improved, but final conclusions regarding its quality will only be possible in about a year’s time.

He spoke about this during an open staff meeting on 6 April, according to NikVesti.

According to him, some water quality indicators currently still do not meet standards, particularly regarding colour, turbidity and oxidisability.

«Water quality has improved. We had slightly worse indicators for colour and turbidity. As of yesterday, colour stands at 21° against a standard of 20°, turbidity at 0.8 mg/dm³ against a standard of 0.58. Chlorides and total hardness are within the standard. Oxidisability almost constantly exceeds the permissible level,» stated Hennadii Iziumov.

Open meeting of the Mykolaiv City Council on 6 April. Photo: NikVesti

He added that the situation may improve in the near future, as work to clean the system is ongoing. According to him, they plan to complete the flushing of the reservoirs in another week or two, and are also responding to residents’ complaints by flushing the water supply networks. He believes that by then the indicators may return to normal levels.

«We will reach a conclusion within a year. It is impossible to do so now, as the new source has not yet been in operation for a full year. Therefore, the full picture will become clear when warmer weather arrives, and factors such as algal blooms come into play. Then we will see how the treatment facilities provided by Avtostrada perform,» noted Hennadii Iziumov.

Read also the article by NikVesti «The state is building new treatment plants, while Mykolaiv insists on modernising them with an EIB loan: what the city stands to gain from this».

When will the new water treatment plants start operating?

The launch of the new water treatment plants to supply centralised water to Mykolaiv was promised as early as January 2026, but they were not due to be fully operational until later. They were built using funds saved during the construction of the new water pipeline.

Initially, the plan was to take out an EIB loan to fund the construction of the new water treatment facilities for Mykolaiv, with Denmark providing the remainder as a grant. The project was expected to take several years to complete and was intended to help supply the city with water meeting European standards.

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

However, Mykolaiv’s mayor, Oleksandr Sienkevych, supports the modernisation of the new water treatment facilities using a loan from the European Investment Bank, but believes that the state should pay for it.

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

The water pipeline 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 of nearly half a million people has been left without a centralised supply of high-quality water.

All this time, Mykolaiv residents have been receiving water from a backup source, which raises many questions about the quality of such 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, stated that it is impossible to replace the entire length of the network damaged by the influx of salt 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, 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 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 pipeline 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 supply network.