Ukraine Approves Revised Drinking Water Draft

The Government of Ukraine has approved a draft law of its national drinking water programme for 2011-20, which is a revision of the 2006-20 national drinking water programme.

The law was revised because the country’s centralised water supply and wastewater are losing their economic attraction for investment, which has led to dissatisfaction among the population about the terms and quality of water supply and wastewater services.

The country is to invest UAH9.5bn ($1.1bn), including UAH3bn ($370m) from the national budget, into the Drinking Water of Ukraine programme until 2020.

Ukraine will protect sources of drinking water supply, construct and rehabilitate sewage-treatment facilities with the latest technology, and carry out emergency replacement of sewer networks and their buildings.

The programme will protect 2,234 intakes, construct or reconstruct 570 water facilities and implement 23,000 additional cleaning stations.

It will also include the construction or reconstruction of 131 sewage plants, the development of 1,230 optimisation schemes for water supply systems and wastewater services, and equipment for 356 water quality control laboratories.