«I don`t believe the promises anymore»: the residents of Novohryhorivka are asking to restore the water supply

Since the beginning of the full-scale war, there has been no drinking water in the village of Novogrigorivka in the Mykolayiv region. Technical water flows from the taps of local residents.

This is stated in the article NikVesti «Grandson washed his hands with water flowing from the ceiling». Report from Novohryhorivka».

Residents of Novohryhorivka have to carry drinking water from the local church, where it is regularly brought by volunteers. There is also a lack of technical water here from time to time. The water supply system of the village was damaged as a result of Russian shelling, because of this there are frequent rushes of water.

«The main problem for the village is drinking water. The chairman concluded a contract with some company, pipes were laid on two of our streets, a new tower was put up, but the water has not yet been connected, this work has not yet been completed. In the two years that I have lived in the village, I no longer believe the promises,» said Halyna Verbytska, a resident of Novohryhorivka.

What about the water in Mykolaiv?

Back in April 2022, Russian troops destroyed the water pipeline through which Mykolaiv received drinking water. Despite constant shelling, ,the workers of «Mykolaivvodokanal» tried to restore it, but without success.

In the same year, NikVesti found out how dangerous the water in Mykolaiv taps is for consumption. It turned out that it contains enterococci, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, toxic elements, has an increased content of chlorides, sulfates, dry residue, etc.

More information about what threatens the people of Mykolaiv from the use of «technical» water and what awaits the residents of the city in the future — we laid out in the material «Mykolaiv. The city that holds the defense of the south suffers from thirst».

In March 2023, the director of Mykolaivvodokanal, Borys Dudenko, announced the possible threat of destruction of the sewage system due to the influence of salt water. According to him, over the past year, the water utility has eliminated more than 1,000 leaks, and after the start of the supply of salty water, the number of accidents per day has increased to 10-15 times.

The European Investment Bank has approved additional credit financing of 20 million euros to improve water supply and drainage in Mykolaiv under the Municipal Infrastructure Development Program of Ukraine.

Before that, it was planned to allocate 1.2 billion hryvnias from the state budget for the restoration of the water supply system in Mykolaiv. Such a step is necessary for the city, because salt water corrodes the pipes and over time the entire water supply system will have to be changed in the city, explained the director of the water supply company, Borys Dudenko.

At the same time, the head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, Vitalii Kim, considers his team's decision to supply the city with «technical» water from the Southern Bug after the water main was damaged to be correct.

Currently, the Vodokanal is considering six options for arranging a new water intake site to provide Mykolaiv with drinking water. These searches began in the summer of 2022. At that time, the general director of the water company, Borys Dudenko, talked about the options from where to get the necessary amount of water to fill the city's water supply system and its 24-hour operation.

• the first option is to go higher along the riverbed of the Southern Bug, choose a place with high-quality fresh water, build a water intake station there, lay a pipeline to Mykolaiv;
• the second is to continue pumping water from the Dnipro-Bug estuary, but to install industrial-scale reverse osmosis units. Such installations are very energy-consuming.

As early as August 2023, the department of capital construction and support of development projects of the Mykolaiv RMA announced a tender for the reconstruction of 12 sections of water mains damaged by salt water in different areas of the city for a total amount of 1 billion 348 million hryvnias.

In September 2023, the head of Mykolaiv RMA Vitalii Kim announced the possible deterioration of water quality in the taps of Mykolaiv residents. At the same time, he believes that currently the water from the taps of Mykolaiv residents is better in terms of quality than «most of the water in Europe».

Currently, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is personally dealing with the issue of restoring the supply of drinking water to Mykolaiv.

In Berlin, on February 19, the Eastern Committee of the German Economy signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Mykolaiv Water Hub.

On March 23, it was reported that the State Enterprise «Kryvbasshahtzakryttia» dumped mine water into the Inhulets River, from where Mykolaiv receives its water. Due to this, tap water in the city became salty again.

On April 8, the head of Mykolaiv RMA Vitalii Kim announced that this year they will not have time to return drinking water to the taps of Mykolaiv residents, but «there are plans».