The capacity of the new water supply system for Mykolaiv has not yet been calculated. Kim believes that in the future it will be reinforced by the Dnipro water supply system

Mykolaiv, archive photo NikVesti

The regional military administration is currently considering two projects for the construction of a new water supply system for Mykolaiv. This will help determine the capacity of the water supply system: 120 or 160 thousand cubic metres per day.

This was announced by Vitalii Kim, head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, during a press conference on 30 December, according to NikVesti.

«I insisted on 160,000, the vision of the Recovery Agency is 120,000. In our long-term development plan, it is 200,000. But I believe that we will restore the water supply from Dnipro. Discussions are currently underway at the ministry level, including with our partners. They are calculating the specific weight of one kilometre. That is, if we do 120 kilometres now, how much more expensive will it be to add more later, or maybe we need to do everything at once,» said Vitalii Kim.

Vitalii Kim, head of the Mykolaiv Regional Autonomous Region, during a press conference, 30 December 2024, photo: NikVesti

The head of the RMA clarified that in the future, additional water supplies for Mykolaiv could also be provided by the Dnipro water supply system, but after its restoration.

«We are actually considering two projects. I think that in January it will be clear that we will restore the water supply from the Dnipro. At least we will have this history. Therefore, the minimum capacity we need is between 120,000 and 160,000,» said Vitalii Kim.

Earlier, in an interview with «Radio Liberty», the mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, said that restoring the water supply from the Dnipro would take a long time, and the water would be of worse quality than before the full-scale war.

«Even if there is a ceasefire or we are able to get to the Dnipro River, we will not be able to start this process quickly. Because during this time, the Russians completely bombed the water intake station near the Dnipro River. After the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station was blown up, it was also flooded. The Kakhovka dam played the role of a natural sump. That is, the water that flowed from Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia in the Kakhovka reservoir was settled, then underwent aeration through the hydroelectric power station, and then we took it. Now it flows directly, so the quality of this water will be completely different than before the full-scale invasion. That is why we are now working towards the construction of a new pipeline and modernisation of our treatment facilities to provide Mykolaiv residents with drinking water next year - in autumn 2025, we will receive water from a new water intake point at the treatment plant «of Mykolaivvodokanal», said Oleksandr Sienkevych.

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The State Agency for Infrastructure Reconstruction and Development is waiting for official calculations from the regional military administration to determine the capacity of the new water supply system for Mykolaiv.

Initially, it was planned to build a 160,000 cubic metres per day water supply system. However, later, the head of the State Agency for Reconstruction started talking about the possibility of reducing this figure to 100,000 cubic metres, based on the city's current water consumption.

Currently, Mykolaiv residents consume 75,000 to 108,000 cubic metres of centralised technical water per day. However, in the future, water consumption may be higher, as there are no large enterprises operating in the city today, and the population is still below pre-war levels.

Read also the article NikVesti «Three years without drinking water: what will the future water supply be like for Mykolaiv?»