The new management of the water utility has dismissed Technical Director Telpis, who had worked at the company for over 40 years

Vasyl Telpis, Technical Director of the municipal utility «Mykolaivvodokanal», has been dismissed from his post following a letter of resignation he submitted to the company’s new management team, which was appointed by the recently established supervisory board.

He submitted the declaration marked «upon resignation» on 3 April, as indicated in the NACP’s register of declarations.

In a comment to the publication NikVesti, Vasyl Telpis stated that he had indeed written a letter of resignation following a conversation with the new CEO of «Mykolaivvodokanal», Hennadii Iziumov.

«I can see that something isn’t right. I asked the new manager if we would be working together. I was told that they didn’t see a place for me in the company. So I wrote my resignation letter and left,» Vasyl Telpis told the journalist.

He declined to comment publicly on the company’s future.

Oleksandr Sienkevych presents Vasyl Telpis with the ‘For Services to the City’ award, Screenshot from Facebook

Vasyl Telpis began working for the Mykolaiv Water Utility immediately after graduating from the Odesa Institute of Engineering and Construction (Faculty of Water Supply and Sanitation) in 1985.

Having worked for over 40 years, he rose through the ranks from process engineer at the municipal sewage treatment plant (1985), to head of the municipal sewage treatment plant (1986), chief engineer (1991), and director of the water utility (1998).

In 2015, Vasyl Telpis had already resigned from the water utility during Mayor Yurii Hranaturov’s term of office, but returned to the company the very next year alongside Chief Engineer Oleksandr Deli.

During Vasyl Telpis’s tenure, the city ceased to be dependent on the accident-prone Zhovtneve Reservoir and water supplies via the Mykolaiv Alumina Plant. The Dnipro–Mykolaiv central water pipeline was built in 1979 to meet the needs of the Mykolaiv Alumina Plant, whilst the city of Mykolaiv continued to receive water from the Inhulets River, which flowed through the Kryvbas industrial zone and was partially mixed with Dnipro water in the Zhovtneve Reservoir.

At that time, an agreement was reached with the Mykolaiv Alumina Plant to transfer the central water pipeline entirely to the Mykolaiv municipality, and the city began receiving water directly, recalls Taras Kremin in the book marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Mykolaiv City Water Pipeline, «The Flow of Living Water».

Book marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Mykolaiv City Water Supply System, «The Flow of Living Water»

It was also Vasyl Telpis who was at the forefront of the investment project to restore water supply and drainage in Mykolaiv when, in 2005, for the first time in independent Ukraine, the municipal enterprise was able to secure a loan of €15.6 million and a €3.4 million grant from the European Commission for the development of water supply and treatment systems for Mykolaiv.

He also served as technical director during the full-scale invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine, when, from April 2022, Mykolaiv was left without a centralised water supply, and coordinated the establishment of backup supply methods for the city’s water systems.

In 2021, Mykolaiv’s mayor, Oleksandr Sienkevych, presented Vasyl Telpis with the mayor’s honorary award «For Services to the City of Mykolaiv».

As is known, at the end of January this year, a new general director of the municipal enterprise «Mykolaivvodokanal» was appointed in Mykolaiv. The post was taken up by Hennadii Iziumov — the former head and chief engineer of water supply construction projects at the municipal enterprise «Mariupolvodokanal».