Kim says that a water main in Mykolaiv can be built twice as cheaply: «We managed to optimize the estimate»

Vitaly Kim at the Ukraine Recovery Conference, photo: NikVesti

The head of Mykolaiv RMA Vitalii Kim said that about 3 billion hryvnias are needed for the construction of a new water pipeline for Mykolaiv.

He told about this in an interview with Hromadske.

Vitalii Kim explained that the city is changing the third construction project. The first one, for which the government previously allocated funds, the authorities were able to implement, but now it is impossible due to the undermining of the Kakhovka HPP.

«The water intake point, which was on the Dnipro, was flooded and completely destroyed. The project became impossible. They started a new one. We already know how to do it — at the final stage of approving this project. The only question is how quickly we will do it,» said Vitalii Kim.

According to the head of RMA, from 2 to 3 billion hryvnias are needed for the construction of a new water pipeline, which will be laid from Nova Odesa. Although, during the Ukraive Recovery Conference in Berlin, Vitaliii Kim said in a comment to NikVesti that it would take from 4 to 8 billion hryvnias. And funds can be given from the reserve fund of the state budget.

«Let's put it this way, so far we have managed to optimize the estimate. If earlier we talked about the amount from 4 to 8 billion, now I think it will be about 2-3 billion. Therefore, we will be able to implement it,» he added.

It is worth noting that in two years the government did not allocate funds for the construction of a new water supply system to provide Mykolaiv with quality water. What do the changes to Cabinet Resolution No. 566, approved on April 29, 2024, indicate, NikVesti writes. At the same time, in 2023, the government allocated 8.2 billion hryvnias for the construction of new water mains in the Dnipropetrovsk region, and 5.1 billion hryvnias this year.

During the conference in Berlin, the first vice-speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Korniienko, answering the questions of 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 pipeline for Mykolaiv should be allocated from the reserve fund of the state budget.

And have they already built a water main for Dnipropetrovsk Oblast?

More than a million residents of Dnipropetrovsk Region, who were left without water as a result of the blowing up of the Kakhovka HPP by Russian troops, did not have to wait for a solution to the problem for several years. In order to return centralized water supply to the region, almost from the first days of the tragedy, the State Agency for Reconstruction and Development of Infrastructure, in cooperation with international partners, began working on its largest project.

Already in December 2023, the new water main was 93% ready, and water supply was restored to some of the settlements. The agency said that more than 1,200 people and hundreds of pieces of equipment worked on the construction around the clock in three shifts. It is about two main water pipelines: «Inhulets — Pivdenne», «Marhanets — Nikopol — Pokrovske, Khortytsia (DVS2) — Tomakivka».

These are three branches of aqueducts with a total length of almost 150 kilometers, a pipe length of 300 kilometers and a water intake from the Dnipro and Ingulets rivers. The Restoration Agency said that the link «Inhulets — Pivdenne» will provide water to the residents of Kryvyi Rih, and «Marhanets — Nikopol — Pokrovske» and «Khortytsia (DVS2) — Tomakivka — Marhanets» — to the residents of Kryvyi Rih, Nikopol, Marhanets, Tomakivka, Marianka and Pokrovske community of Dnipropetrovsk region.

Why was there salt water in Mykolaiv in March?

Mykolaiv was left without water for some time after the Dnieper aqueduct was damaged. Later, salt water from the estuary was introduced into the network, and today the city receives river water. In terms of its quality, it is inferior to the Dnipro river, but it is still better than the Lyman river. In this way, almost half a million people in Mykolaiv receive better quality technical water in their homes, says the explainer of NikVesti «Why is the water salty again in Mykolaiv? We explain.»

But from the beginning of March 2024, the people of Mykolaiv noticed that the quality of the water in the taps deteriorated — it became saltier and took on a more yellow color than usual.

The municipal enterprise «Mykolaivvodokanal» commented on the deterioration of water quality in the taps of citizens only on March 15. They explained that the deterioration of water quality «is caused by natural and man-made factors», and also added that «there are no simple and quick solutions to such complex issues, but work in this direction continues».

It turned out that the state-owned enterprise «Kryvbasshahtzakrytye», which is located upstream of the place of water intake for Mykolaiv, dumped water from its sumps into the river. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine gave him permission to do this until March 15, 2024, as evidenced by the relevant order «On the discharge of excess return water into the Inhulets River». In fact, we are talking about water that, after use with the help of technical facilities, enterprises return to rivers in the form of sewage, mine, quarry or drainage water.

However, the main condition of this permission from the Cabinet of Ministers is that the enterprise must comply with individual regulations. That is, the content of chlorides (salts, — note) in Ingulets should not exceed the maximum permissible concentration (MPC) of 350 milligrams per cubic decimeter (per liter, — note). For this purpose, mine waters must enter Inhulets together with fresh water, which would dilute them and reduce the percentage of mineralization. However, it turned out that this indicator was exceeded more than 4 times.

Unlike the Mykolaiv state eco-inspectors, the Dnipro inspectors did not see an excess of chloride (salt) content in Inhulets during the discharge of mine water into the river by Kryvbas enterprises.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal reacted to the latest story of NikVesti regarding his scandalous decision to allow the discharge of mine water to the state-owned enterprise «Kryvbasshahtozakrytye» into the river from which Mykolaiv receives its water. He held a meeting at which he «instructed to ensure the uninterrupted supply of technical water to Mykolaiv.»

And in April 2024, the government of Ukraine allocated 125.5 million hryvnias for the water supply of Mykolaiv.

Later, it became known that a new water main to supply Mykolaiv with water will be laid from Nova Odesa. The client of the works will be the Service for Reconstruction and Development of Infrastructure in Mykolaiv Oblast.

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, he workers of «Mykolaivvodokanal» tried to restore it, but without success.

The damaged water pipeline «Dnipro - Mykolaiv», which passes through the Kherson region, 2022

The damaged water pipeline «Dnipro - Mykolaiv», which passes through the Kherson region, 2022

Employees of «Mykolaivvodokanal» are restoring the water supply. Photo: «NykVesty"

In the same year, NikVesti found out how dangerous the water in Mykolaiv's 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 utility 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 channel 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-Buzka estuary, but to install industrial-scale reverse osmosis units. Such installations are very energy-consuming.

Already in 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 the people of Mykolaiv 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.