Measures totalling nearly ₴29 billion have been planned to clean up the Southern Bug

Water in the Southern Bug River in Mykolaiv, summer 2026, photo by NikVesti

By 2030, nearly 29 billion hryvnias are set to be allocated to the implementation of the Southern Bug River basin restoration programme. Seventeen key environmental protection measures have been planned for the Mykolaiv region, including the reconstruction of treatment plants, the establishment of riparian protection zones and the dredging of rivers.

This was reported to NikVesti by the Southern Bug River Basin Water Resources Administration.

In total, the six-year programme comprises 130 measures, of which 110 are key measures and a further 20 are supplementary. Almost 70 per cent of all key measures relate to the construction or refurbishment of wastewater treatment plants, as inadequately treated effluent is cited as one of the main causes of river pollution.

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The most costly part of the programme will be the modernisation of treatment infrastructure in large and medium-sized towns. 19.8 billion hryvnias have been earmarked for this work. A further 7.4 billion hryvnias are planned to be allocated to the refurbishment of treatment facilities in small towns and villages. Separate funding will be provided for measures to restore river channels, dredge water bodies and establish water protection zones.

The River Basin Authority notes that the main problems facing the Southern Bug today remain pollution from organic and biogenic substances, river channel regulation, climate change, the spread of invasive species and the consequences of Russian aggression. At the same time, the ecological status of the river across the entire basin has not yet been officially determined, as state water monitoring is still ongoing.

Read also the article by NikVesti entitled «One river for two regions. How the condition of the Southern Bug in Khmelnytskyi region affects the water received by Mykolaiv».

It should be noted that in the Cherkasy region, a farm has started using water from the Syniukha to irrigate its fields. The river is one of the largest tributaries of the Southern Bug, from which water is abstracted downstream for Mykolaiv’s centralised water supply.