Sienkevych: In Mykolaiv, 70 km of water mains were flushed in May, but the owners are responsible for the pipes inside their homes
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- Darina MelnychukCorrespondent
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Construction of the new water main for Mykolaiv, 22 May 2025, photo: Darina Melnychuk, NikVestiFollowing the commissioning of the new water treatment plant and water main, the municipal utility «Mykolaivvodokanal» is flushing the water supply networks. Throughout May, the company’s specialists flushed 70 kilometres of pipes in the city.
This was announced by the mayor, Oleksandr Sienkevych, during a staff meeting today, 6 July, according to NikVesti.
According to him, the flushing specifically concerns the main networks managed by the municipal enterprise «Mykolaivvodokanal». At the same time, the networks inside buildings and pipelines on private property must be maintained by the owners themselves.
«During May, we flushed 70 kilometres of water mains. The work is continuing. We are all aware of this information; we can see that it is happening. But, once again, issues relating to in-building networks or pipes on private property are the personal responsibility of each resident to address these pipes and their replacement,» said Oleksandr Sienkevych.
Oleksandr Sienkevych, Mayor of Mykolaiv. Photo: NikVestiAccording to him, in many blocks of flats and private homes, the internal pipework has not been updated for decades, so it needs replacing.
«Because one of my acquaintances cut open a pipe on his plot and said: «Look what happened to the pipes after your water!» And his pipe had simply rusted through; everything inside had rotted away. I said: «Mate, I suppose it’s about time you laid a new pipe from the standpipe on the street to your house. Who laid it?» — «I didn’t.» Well, that explains it all. If you’ve lived there for 40 years and didn’t lay that pipe, it means it was laid some 60 years ago, which is why it’s in such a state. So, friends, don’t look for someone to blame; look for ways to sort out your own pipework. Work together with your neighbours and replace metal risers with plastic or polyethylene ones,» said Oleksandr Sienkevych.
It should be noted that the day before, the government reported that high-quality drinking water was flowing from the taps in Mykolaiv.
When were the new water treatment facilities due to be commissioned?
They had promised to commission new water treatment facilities to supply centralised water to Mykolaiv as early as January 2026, but the plan was to bring them fully online later. They were built using funds saved during the construction of the new water main.
Initially, the plan was to take out a loan from the EIB to fund the construction of the new water treatment facilities for Mykolaiv, with Denmark providing a further portion as a grant. The project was expected to take several years to complete and was intended to help ensure the city’s water supply met European standards.
However, Serhii Sukhomlyn, head of the State Agency for Reconstruction, later stated that this idea had been abandoned. It was decided to build the new water treatment facilities using state funds — those saved during the construction of the city’s new water main.
However, the mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, supports the modernisation of the new water treatment facilities using a loan from the European Investment Bank, but believes that the state should repay it.
Read also the article by NikVesti entitled «When will Mykolaiv have drinking water on tap, and how much will it cost?».
The water pipeline for Mykolaiv: a brief 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 nearly half a million people has been left without a centralised supply of high-quality water.
All this time, the people of Mykolaiv have been receiving water from a backup source, which raises many questions about the quality of this water and its salt content. The salt water has damaged 1,200 kilometres of the city’s water supply network. Borys Dudenko, director of «Mykolaivvodokanal», stated that it is impossible to replace the entire length of the network that was damaged by the influx of salt water.
For a long time, representatives of central and local government sought ways to restore the drinking water supply in Mykolaiv. A final decision was reached in 2024: a new water pipeline will be laid from Nova Odesa, with funding allocated from the state budget.
The regional reconstruction service even selected contractors who would work on a «design-build» basis. These were three companies, each responsible for one of the three sections of the work: «Ukrtransmist», «Rostdorstroi» and «Avtostrada». However, both the client and the construction contractor were subsequently changed. The client for the construction of the new water main became the Infrastructure Restoration and Development Service in the Dnipropetrovsk region, and the contractor was the «Avtostrada» group of companies.
The new water pipeline for Mykolaiv was commissioned on 7 October 2025 — it was connected to the water utility’s networks.
As early as November, the head of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, Vitalii Kim, stated that drinking water could be flowing from Mykolaiv residents’ taps within half a month to a month. That is precisely how long it will take to complete all work on the treatment plants and receive the official laboratory reports.
