The basement of a homeowners’ association in Mykolaiv has been flooding for the fifth year running due to burst water mains

The flooded basement of the «Svyrydova 7» Housing Association in 2024. Photo: Yevhen Korolkov’s Facebook page

In Mykolaiv, residents of the «Svyrydova 7» Housing Association on General Svyrydov Street are complaining about regular flooding of the basement due to faults in the networks operated by the municipal utility «Mykolaivvodokanal». Following yet another incident of flooding, property in the building was damaged.

This was discussed during a meeting of the Mykolaiv City Council’s standing committee on housing and communal services on 29 June, according to NikVesti.

Yevhen Korolkov, chairman of the homeowners’ association, said the problem has been ongoing since 2022. According to him, the building’s basement floods almost every year due to bursts in the worn-out main water pipe in the area of Kherson Highway, Hennadii Motoliak Street, 5th Line and 6th Pozdovzhnia Street.

«This is the fourth time we’ve had flooding. And I simply cannot get the water utility to sort this problem out,» said Yevhen Korolkov.

According to the chairman of the homeowners’ association, there were 17 incidents in this area between 2023 and 2025, four of which resulted in the basement being flooded. He noted that after each burst, the utility company only carries out local repairs to the pipe, even though residents have repeatedly asked for the damaged section to be completely replaced.

The flooding damaged the housing association’s property stored in the basement. The individual heating substation, radiators, pumping equipment and other property were affected.

«Four of these 17 incidents resulted in my basement being flooded. Damage was caused to property and, unfortunately, it was the residents of the homeowners’ association who had to deal with the compensation, rather than the water utility. The water utility is distancing itself from this problem,» he said.

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Yevhen Korolkov also appealed to the councillors to take control of the situation, to oblige the municipal enterprise «Mykolaivvodokanal» to provide a plan to resolve the problem and to consider the issue of compensation for the losses caused by the latest flooding, both to the housing association and to «Mykolaivoblteploenergo», whose property was also damaged.

Hennadii Iziumov, the managing director of the municipal enterprise «Mykolaivvodokanal», was present at the committee meeting. However, he was unable to clarify the situation. He stated that the company needed to carry out a further assessment of the situation in order to determine who is responsible for the network and what work is required. He promised that within two days, specialists would provide the committee with a response, and by the end of the week – proposals for resolving the problem.

«As for the repairs, I cannot give you an answer at the moment, because we need to establish who is responsible for the network and what needs repairing — whether it is the networks managed by the homeowners’ association or those belonging to the municipal utility company. We need to assess the scale of the problem, and then we will report back so that the committee is fully informed. I currently have 11 sinkholes across the town. Pumping stations are operating at five of them, and the faults need to be rectified immediately,» noted Hennadii Iziumov.

Following the discussion, the committee members decided to monitor the issue and are awaiting an official response from the municipal utility company regarding the causes of the flooding and how to resolve them.

It should be noted that residents of the building at 35A Teatralna Street in the Inhulskyi district of Mykolaiv have once again complained about the basement being flooded with sewage. They publicly raised a similar issue a year ago, but it has still not been fully resolved. «Mykolaivvodokanal» says the cause may be linked to the shop on the ground floor of the building and the condition of the building’s internal pipework.

NikVesti had already reported on this issue in the summer of 2025. At the time, residents of 35A Teatralna Street stated that the sewer manholes near the building were becoming blocked almost every two days, and that sewage was flowing into the basement instead of being drained away through the network.

It was also reported that problems with a sewer main had been identified near the junction of Sadova Street and 68 Desantnykiv Street in Mykolaiv. The city plans to carry out additional repair work and close this section of the road to traffic.