«The water pipeline will supply the city with water at 7 hryvnias per cubic meter of water» — Kim considers the implementation of the project to be one of his most successful cases

Pumping station on the new water pipeline, photo by NikVesti

The head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, Vitalii Kim, believes that the construction of a new water pipeline for Mykolaiv is one of the most successful management cases during his tenure. He is also confident that the water tariff in the area should be lower.

This was stated by Vitalii Kim, head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, on the Newsmaker programme.

«I can say with confidence that this is one of my most successful cases. If the water had been cut off and the water pipeline had not been built, there would have been nothing left to explain to people. The water pipeline was built in August. Currently, the construction of the treatment facilities is 96% complete. According to the plan, it will be ready in the first quarter of 2026,» said Vitalii Kim.

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Vitalii Kim also emphasised that the water currently supplied to the homes of Mykolaiv residents meets state quality standards and is similar in quality to that in Kyiv.

«I would like to note that the water in the taps now complies with DSTU standards, which are the same as in Kyiv. In other words, the DSTU standards we have been working on are more stringent because people were actually drinking water from the tap. There are two indicators that we need to achieve through the treatment facilities in order for the water to be truly drinkable. This will be done,» he assured.

Separately, the head of the RMA touched on the topic of tariffs. He noted that according to the NEURC, the economically justified tariff for water in the city is almost 90 hryvnias. According to him, the water supply itself allows water to be supplied to Mykolaiv at a cost of about 7 hryvnias. The rest of the cost is formed through purification, transportation and water canal losses.

«Currently, the tariff is, if I remember correctly, 34 hryvnias for water and sewerage in Mykolaiv. The NEURC has stated that the reasonable tariff is 90 hryvnias, but we still have 34 hryvnias. And it will be a bad situation if the price is raised for people. We have set up a commission to investigate this. Because this water pipeline will supply the city with water at 7 hryvnia, all other costs are for purification, delivery and water losses,» said the head of the RMA.

In addition, he noted that a special commission was created to verify the validity of the costs, because he believes that the company has «too many losses.»

«The water utility is currently being corporatised, and we have invited members of the supervisory board and anti-corruption activists to ensure transparency. I believe that there are too many losses and suboptimal decisions, and everyone is investing in the tariff. However, I am not an expert. Even if I am aware of this, experts should provide their conclusions. I will fight to make this tariff lower. The current restrictions due to martial law are correct. This is a loss-making tariff for the city, and the city has to pay. The city is not spending anything of its own, but is spending taxpayers' money,» Vitalii Kim emphasised .

Earlier, the head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, Vitalii Kim, promised to do everything possible to prevent the tariff for centralised drinking water supply for Mykolaiv residents from increasing.

In turn, Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych noted that the city now pays for water from the new water pipeline by meter, which may affect the tariff for consumers.

Read also the article NikVesti «When will Mykolaiv receive drinking water from the taps and how much will it cost?»

In particular, it says that the launch of new water treatment facilities for centralized water supply in Mykolaiv is promised as early as January 2026, but they are promised to be fully operational later. They were built with funds saved during the construction of the new water pipeline.

Initially, it was planned to take out an EIB loan for the construction of new water treatment facilities for Mykolaiv, with Denmark providing part of the funding as a grant. The project was expected to take several years to complete and was intended to help provide the city with water of European standard quality.

However, the head of the State Agency for Reconstruction, Serhii Sukhomlyn, later said that this idea had been abandoned. It was decided to build new water treatment facilities using state funds — those saved during the construction of a new water pipeline for the city.

However, Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych supports the modernisation of new water treatment facilities with a loan from the European Investment Bank, but believes that the state should pay for it.

Water pipeline for Mykolaiv. A bit of history

It has been more than three years since Russian troops damaged the water pipeline that supplied Mykolaiv with water. Since then, the city of almost half a million people has been left without a centralised supply of quality water.

All this time, Mykolaiv residents have been receiving water from a backup source, which raises many questions about the quality of such water and its salt content. Salt water has damaged 1,200 kilometres of the city's water supply network. Borys Dudenko, director of Mykolaivvodokanal, said that it is impossible to replace the entire length of the network that was damaged by the supply of salty water.

For a long time, representatives of the state and local authorities sought options for restoring the drinking water supply in Mykolaiv. A final decision was reached in 2024: a new water pipeline will be laid from Nova Odesa, and the money will be allocated from the state budget.

The regional restoration service even selected contractors who would work on a «design-build» basis. These were three companies, each responsible for one of three sections of the work: Ukrtransmist, Rostdorstroi and Avtostrada. However, both the customer and the contractor were subsequently changed. The customer for the construction of the new water pipeline was the Infrastructure Restoration and Development Service in the Dnipropetrovsk region, and the contractor was the Autostrada group of companies.

The new water pipeline for Mykolaiv was put into operation on 7 October 2025 and connected to the water supply network.