On the way to develop water solidarity system in Ovruch district of Zhytomyr Oblast in Ukraine
On Dec. 19 there was round table discussion arranged at the National Ecology and Nature Center in Kyiv. It was aimed at negotiating and proceeding possible cooperation within implementation of social projects between Ovruch Regional State Administration and national ecological organization Green Cross Ukraine (GCU).
Chairman of the Board, Executive Director (GCU) Yuriy S. Sapiga opened the meeting and welcomed the participants. The roundtable meeting was attended by: Vasily Nalapiy – Chairman of the Ovruch District Council, Anatoliy Bibko - Deputy Chairman of the Regional State Administration, Nikolai Levkovskiy – Head of the Pershotravneve village council, Yuriy Boiko - hygienist of the Ovruch District Sanitary Epidemiological Station, Yuriy Mogilevets - Head of the Sholomky village council, Dmitriy Krakovich - Kiev International Institute of Sociology, Olga Yurchenko - water engineer, LLC "Integrated Water Technologies", Tetyana Іschenko - coordinator at Green Cross of Ukraine (GCU), Dmitriy Sapiga - technical and information support at Green Cross Ukraine (GCU).
Topical issues were discussed at the meeting about possible solutions of the problems related to drinking water and water supply, as well as possible ways to implement a decentralized water solidarity mechanism in Ovruch district, Zhytomyr region.
Yuriy Sapiga noted that according to the UN Water Report on the state of water resources worldwide Ukraine ranks the 95th place out of 122 possible for the quality of its water. The following factors cause extremely poor quality of water supplied to the people in Ukraine
- Ukraine is a country with poorly secured water
- In Ukraine all sources of water abstraction correspond to only the 3rd and 4th categories of quality, i.e. characterized as "polluted water" and "dirty water"
- Unsatisfactory condition of centralized water treatment facilities and the use of outdated technologies of water treatment
- Chlorination of water leads to the formation of a number of chlororganics, which have toxic, carcinogenic and mutagenic effects on a human body
- Lifecycle of domestic water pipelines (60-70%) have already expired and they are in disrepair.
Common problems of water supply in Ovruch area:
- About half of the settlements have no water supply networks
- Of the 57 existing waterlines only 52 are in operation (the other do not work because of a failure of the electrical equipment and the lack of funds to repair or replace them)
- Poor water quality (first and foremost there is excessively high iron content in water)
- Of the 57 water supply systems only 29 have water treatment plant pyrifying water from iron, and only 6 of them work effectively (there is no funds to change quartz sand and to supply treatment plants with additional electric power)
- Many water supply lines are in poor condition: inspectation holes of standpipes are flooded with groundwater, most of them are out of operation, there are a lot of breakthroughs in pipelines
- For the last two years no funds were allocated to purchase materials for disinfection (chlorination of water pipelines .
Here is the list of prospective partners who might participate in the implementation of joint activities under the possible development of a decentralized water solidarity mechanism in Ovruch district of Zhytomyr region and conduction of new joint projects:
- Rural and village councils in respective localities
- Ovruch District Council
- Ovruch Regional State Administration
- Enterprises that provide communal services for local water utilities networks ("Kommunalnik")
- Ovruch Interdistrict Water Management
- State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service in Ovruch district
Dmitriy Krakovich presented preliminary research findings. He told about the research that they are carring out in Ovruch region in cooperation with Green Cross of Ukraine (GCU).
Tatiana Ischenko, GCU Coordinator, made ??a presentation and reported about preliminary studies on decentralized water solidarity mechanism in Ovruch district of Zhytomyr region.
Once again Vasily Nalapiy expressed his gratitude on behalf of all Nevgody villagers who are thankful for the help they received under the pilot project Smart Water for Green Schools. Due to the project water treatment facilities were repaired, dry eco latrines were constructed and installed at the local school that allowed solving water and sanitation problems. Water supply pipes were replaced in the households and standpipes were renovated. Thanks to the International SOCMED program children from Ovruch district had the opportunity to get healthier in the summer therapy camp in the Transcarpathian region.
Vasily Nalapiy, Chairman of the Ovruch District Council, stressed that he sincerely hopes to continue implementation of similar projects in other localities in Ovruch area and provide vital support thanks to close partnerships and new stakeholders to be involved.
Dmitriy Sapiga
Technical and information support, Green Cross Ukraine (GCU)
