«This will solve the problem of water shortage»: EIB about €7.8 million aid for the construction of treatment facilities in Mykolaiv

UPDATED 1:30 p.m. Changed the headline of the news from «EIB allocated €7.8 million to restore water supply in Mykolaiv» to «This will solve the problem of water shortage»: EIB about €7.8 million in aid for the construction of treatment facilities in Mykolaiv», and also added a comment from the director of the municipal enterprise Mykolaivvodokanal Boris Dudenko.

Purified water dispensing point in Mykolaiv, photo: Mykolaiv RMA

The European Investment Bank (EIB) reported that 7.8 million euros for the project to reconstruct sewage treatment facilities in Mykolaiv «will solve the problem of water shortage.»

This was reported in the European Investment Bank.

«This project will solve the problem of water shortage caused by Russian shelling, which seriously damaged the water supply infrastructure of Mykolaiv. Therefore, this makes the project particularly important for the restoration of the city,» the message reads.

Executive Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis stressed that «today's financing of a municipal project in Mykolaiv from the EIB, supported by an EU guarantee, will provide much-needed help to rebuild the city, making it safer and more sustainable.»

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However, as Borys Dudenko, director of the Mykolaivvodokanal utility company, said in a comment on «NikVesti, it is about the loan funds of the project, the implementation of which the city began as early as 2022.

— I don't know why this message is being published right now, but this message is related to our previous loan. This is not news. At the end of 2022, the beginning of 2023, we began to calculate and implement the project. These are funds from that loan.

This is an old project. At the beginning of the war, it is clear that we stopped it, and now we will continue it. At the moment, procedural moments are ongoing, - said Borys Dudenko.

He also specified that the implementation of this project is planned to begin at the end of 2024 or at the beginning of 2025.

— I think that it will begin in our country at the end of this year or the beginning of the 25th. Then we will publish the news that we have started the implementation of the project, and then we will talk about something. Now this is not news, let's put it this way, - said Borys Dudenko.

Water supply for Mykolaiv

Pipes damaged by salt water stored at Mykolaivvodokanal enterprise, August 2024, photo «NikVesti»

In May, Mayor Sienkovych expressed hope that the dismissal of Oleksandr Kubrakov from the post of Minister of Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure will not affect plans to build a new water main for the city.

Mustafa Nayem was also dismissed in June. However, Nayem himself later responded to the Ministry of Finance's accusation that the Agency had not provided the project with a water pipeline in the Mykolaiv region, noting that at the time of his dismissal, the terms of reference for the procurement procedure were already being prepared.

During the briefing on July 11, answering a question from «NikVesti», Vitaly Kim said that Mykolaiv has not yet received funds from the government for the construction of a new water supply, because the amount has changed there. He planned to present the updated estimate of the project for consideration by the government.

Earlier, the head of Mykolayiv OVA Vitaly Kim told journalists that thanks to the optimization of the estimate, about 3 billion hryvnias are needed for the construction of the water pipeline. Although earlier it was about the amount from 4 to 8 billion hryvnias.

It is worth noting that in two years the government did not allocate funds for the construction of a new water pipeline to provide Mykolaiv with quality water. As evidenced by the amendments to Cabinet Resolution No. 566, approved on April 29, 2024, «NikVesti» is written. 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 Kornienko, answering a question from «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.

David Arakhamiya, head of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction, believes that funds for the construction of a new water main for Mykolaiv should be allocated from the reserve fund of the state budget.

On July 23, 2024, Mykolaiv City Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych met with the leadership of the Service for Reconstruction and Development of Infrastructure in the Mykolaiv Region to discuss the process of building a water main for the supply of drinking water.

Later, it became known that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered the construction of a new water main to provide Mykolaiv with drinking water "on the fast track» - drinking water should be available by the summer of 2025. The government has already approved the corresponding program.

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 residents of Mykolaiv receive better quality technical water in their homes, says the explainer «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 enterprise «Kryvbasshahtozakrytye», 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 Ingulets 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 Ingulka should not exceed the maximum permissible concentration (MPC) of 350 milligrams per cubic decimeter (per liter, — note). For this purpose, mine waters must enter Ingulets 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 material of «NikVesti» regarding his scandalous decision to allow the discharge of mine waters 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 Ukraineallocated 125.5 million hryvnias for the water supply of Mykolaiv.