Of the 9,450 water supply facilities inspected in Ukraine in 2026, 907 do not comply with sanitary legislation. The violations vary, from a lack of laboratory monitoring of water quality to elevated nitrate levels.
The results of the inspections were reported by the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection.
Widespread violations
Over the year, the service’s specialists inspected 1,301 drinking water supply enterprises. Of these, 420 supply water centrally and the remaining 881 do not. Various violations were found at 351 facilities of the first type and 556 of the second.
The State Service on Food Safety and Consumer Protection analysed the situation across a range of sources. In particular, it inspected 60 pump rooms, with violations found at 35% of them, and 311 drinking water bottling points, with violations at 56%. Of the four inspected companies producing packaged drinking water, violations were found at one. In addition, 5,124 dug wells and two spring catchments were inspected.
The most common types of violations:
- poor sanitary and technical condition of structures and equipment;
- lack of proper laboratory monitoring;
- insufficient supply of water disinfection agents;
- failure of water to meet sanitary-chemical and microbiological standards.
Non-centralised sources also have other problems. These often include the absence of a responsible owner for the facility, no sanitary passports, and a lack of proper cleaning and disinfection. For a number of facilities, the lack of water softening and iron removal systems is also an issue.
Laboratory tests revealed quality problems
In less than a year, the State Service on Food Safety and Consumer Protection tested 10,463 drinking water samples: 8,575 from centralised and 1,888 from non-centralised water supply sources. Of these, 16% and 37% of samples, respectively, did not meet sanitary requirements.
Nitrate content is of particular concern. Nitrates were tested for in 16,614 samples. As a result, they were detected in only 0.33% of cases in water from centralised supply systems, while among non-centralised sources deviations were recorded in almost every fifth sample, at 21.4%.
Nitrates are especially dangerous for young children. Nine cases of water-nitrate methaemoglobinaemia in children under the age of three have already been registered this year, including one fatal case.
Safety rules
The service reminds that water from dug wells and boreholes, as well as from pump rooms and bottling points, needs to be tested regularly. Contamination often cannot be detected by sight or smell.
At the same time, it is worth remembering that boiling is effective only against microorganisms and cannot deal with chemical contamination.
People who use their own water supply source are advised by specialists to regularly submit samples for testing.
You can find out why and how to test your own wells and boreholes here.
