Sienkevych on the construction of a new water pipeline for Mykolaiv: «We are waiting for the appointment of the Minister of Reconstruction»

Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych, photo: NikVesti

The mayor of Mykolaiv Oleksandr Sienkevych said that the issue of building a new water main for the city will be resolved after the appointment of a new Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine.

The mayor said this on August 1 during his live broadcast on social networks, NikVesti writes.

«We cannot approach our destroyed buildings now, because they are being shelled from the left bank. Therefore, we have now worked out the issue of building a new water supply. I can't say everything on broadcasts and news. Not everyone can do it — not me, not the head of the RMA Vitalii Kim, not the ministers, not the president. But we continue to deal with this issue now. The French company «Egis» with the money of the European Investment Bank conducted an assessment of where you can get water in the required quantity and quality. Therefore, this question is kept under the control of all possible branches. A new feasibility study has already been made, preparations for the purchase are now underway, and we are actually waiting for the appointment of a new Minister of Reconstruction and the head of the Reconstruction Agency,» Oleksandr Sienkevych said.

He also added that currently the quality of technical water in the taps of Mykolaiv residents has stabilized and will not be moved in the near future.

«The quality of the water we supply remains technical, but it has stabilized and will not deteriorate in the near future,» the mayor added.

We will remind you that on April 25 it became known that a new main water pipeline 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 the Mykolaiv Oblast.

Why was there salt water in Mykolaiv in March?

Mykolaiv was left without water for some time after the Dnipro 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 «Kryvbasshahtzakryttia», 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 granted 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 Inhulets 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.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal reacted to the latest story of «Nikvesti» about his scandalous decision to allow the discharge of mine waters to the state-owned enterprise «Kryvbasshahtozakryttia» 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.