Shmyhal allowed the discharge of mine water into the river from which Mykolaiv receives water, but the chloride level exceeded the government's expectations by many times

Water in the Ingulets River in March 2024, photo: Serhii Ovcharyshyn/NikVesti

State enterprise «Kryvbasshaktozakryttia» dumped mine water into the Ingulets River, from where Mykolaiv receives its water. Due to this, tap water in the city became salty again.

This is stated in the NikVesti explainer «Why is there salt water again in Mykolaiv? We explain.»

As you know, 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. Mykolaivvodokanal commented on this situation 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 «Kryvbasshahtozakryttia», which is located upstream of the 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. In the order signed by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, it is stated that discharges are needed «to prevent an emergency situation at the hydraulic facilities of the Kryvyi Rih basin, in particular, which may arise as a result of terrorist acts by the aggressor state.»

Screenshot of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine «On discharging excess return water into the Ingulets River"

In general, this process is planned and happens once every few years. According to data on the government's website, the last time the Cabinet of Ministers gave permission to discharge water was in December 2021, even before the full-scale invasion. Prior to that, such permission was granted in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018.

The discharge of mine waters into Ingulets takes place from the storage pond in the Svystunov creek, located in the territory of the Dnipropetrovsk region. The main condition from the Cabinet of Ministers is that the enterprise must comply with individual regulations. That is, the content of chlorides (salts, — note) in Ingulka, in the places of water intakes for Kryvyi Rih and Mykolaiv, 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.

From February 2024 to the present, specialists of the State Environmental Inspection of the South-Western District monitored water quality in Inhulka during the discharge of excess return water from Kryvbas mining enterprises, NikVesti reported there. During this period, the concentration of chloride ions ranged from 1,247 to 1,620 milligrams per liter, and according to the latest measurements, the concentration of chloride ions was 1,375 milligrams per liter. This is more than 4 times more than the maximum permissible concentration.

What about the water in Mykolaiv?

Back in April 2022, Russian troops destroyed the water pipeline through which Mykolaiv received drinking water. Despite constant shelling, the workers of «Mykolaivvodokanal» tried to restore it, but without success.

The damaged water pipeline «Dnipro - Mykolaiv», which passes through the Kherson region, 2022

The damaged water pipeline «Dnipro - Mykolaiv», which passes through the Kherson region, 2022

Employees of «Mykolaivvodokanal» are restoring the water supply. Photo: NikVesti

In the same year, NikVesti found out how dangerous the water in Mykolaivka's taps is for consumption. It turned out that it contains enterococci, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, toxic elements, has an increased content of chlorides, sulfates, dry residue, etc.

More information about what threatens the people of Mykolaiv from the use of «technical» water and what awaits the residents of the city in the future - we presented in the material "Mykolaiv. The city that holds the defense of the south suffers from thirst».

In March 2023, the director of Mykolaivvodokanal, Borys Dudenko, announced the possible threat of destruction of the sewage system due to the influence of salt water. According to him, over the past year, the water utility has eliminated more than 1,000 leaks, and after the start of the supply of salty water, the number of accidents per day has increased to 10-15 times.

The European Investment Bank has approved additional credit financing of 20 million euros to improve water supply and drainage in Mykolaiv under the Municipal Infrastructure Development Program of Ukraine.

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Before that, it was planned to allocate 1.2 billion hryvnias from the state budget for the restoration of the water supply system in Mykolaiv. Such a step is necessary for the city, because salt water corrodes the pipes and over time the entire water supply system will have to be changed in the city, explained the director of the water supply company, Borys Dudenko.

At the same time, the head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, Vitaly Kim, considers his team's decision to supply the city with «technical» water from the Southern Bug after the water main was damaged to be correct.

Currently, the Vodokanal is considering six options for arranging a new water intake site to provide Mykolaiv with drinking water. These searches began in the summer of 2022. At that time, the general director of the water utility, Borys Dudenko , talked about the options from where to get the necessary amount of water to fill the city's water supply system and its 24-hour operation.

• the first option is to go higher along the channel of the Southern Bug, choose a place with high-quality fresh water, build a water intake station there, lay a pipeline to Mykolaiv;
• the second is to continue pumping water from the Dnipro-Bug estuary, but to install industrial-scale reverse osmosis units. Such installations are very energy-consuming.

Already in August 2023, the department of capital construction and support of development projects of the Mykolaiv RMA announced a tender for the reconstruction of 12 sections of water mains damaged by salt water in different areas of the city for a total amount of 1 billion 348 million hryvnias.

In September 2023, the head of Mykolaiv RMA Vitalii Kim announced the possible deterioration of water quality in the taps of Mykolaiv residents. At the same time, he believes that currently the water from the taps of the people of Mykolaiv is better in terms of quality than «most of the water in Europe».

Currently, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is personally dealing with the issue of restoring the supply of drinking water to Mykolaiv.

In Berlin, on February 19, the Eastern Committee of the German Economy signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Mykolaiv Water Hub.