Ukraine belongs to the countries with insufficient provision of water resources and is one of the least water-supplied countries in Europe, however, for many decades, water has never been considered as the basis of life support for natural ecosystems and humans.
Read more about the peculiarities of water management policy in Ukraine, protection and use of water resources, in the material of EcoPolitic.
In Ukraine, water bodies cover 24.2 thousand square kilometers, which is 4.0% of the total territory. The specific supply of river runoff in Ukraine is about 1,000 m3 per person per year, which is 2.5 times lower than in Germany and Sweden, 3.5 times lower than in France and 5 times lower than in England.
There are no large natural reservoirs in Ukraine and few reserves of underground water, and the marshes, which were a natural regulator of the water level of the rivers, are now half drained.
In a scientific publication "Water resources of Ukraine" the authors noted that during the implementation of water management policy in Ukraine for many decades, water was never considered as the basis of life support for natural ecosystems and humans, the economic condition of water systems and their impact on biodiversity was not taken into account or predicted.
Traditionally, it was considered and used only as an economic resource for industrial and agricultural production, obtaining electricity, and also for discharging wastewater. This policy led to the exhaustion of the natural and ecological potential of water resources.
The main consumers of water are industry – 48% of the total consumption (in particular, the power industry, metallurgy, chemical industry), agriculture – 40%, and 12% is for housing and communal services.
The main polluters of water sources are enterprises of metallurgy, coal industry, energy industry, forest chemical industry and agro-industrial complex, and especially communal economy, which accounts for almost half of the emissions of pollutants into the country's waterways. In Ukraine, there is also a significant disparity in the development of water supply and sewage networks.
Due to the intensive influx of harmful substances into underground aquifers, the number of centers of their pollution has increased more than 4 times in the last 20 years alone.
The main problems of rational use and protection of water resources of Ukraine are:
- pollution of water bodies by harmful emissions and insufficiently purified industrial and household wastewater;
- intensive aging of the main funds of water supply and water protection purposes, low productivity of treatment facilities;
- insufficient self-healing and self-cleaning capacity of water systems;
- an unbalanced management system in terms of the water factor, characterized by high volumes of water resources involvement in the production sphere and high water content of products.
Climate change and the military aggression of the Russian Federation led to the fact that Ukraine's water security was under threat. Thus, according to scientists' forecasts, a significant reduction of local surface runoff in rivers in the Kherson, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhia regions is possible from 2041. This may lead to the fact that in the next 30 years the deficit of fresh water will increase, and after 2050 Ukraine may even switch to its import.
The integration of Ukraine into the European Economic Cooperation (EEC) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) involves the formation and implementation of a balanced policy of Ukraine's transition to sustainable development. The environmental requirements of the WTO provide for the reduction of the negative anthropogenic impact of economic activity on the natural environment and human health. Ukraine must harmonize its national development strategy with the requirements of the EU, WTO and international commitments on sustainable development, in particular on water resources.
Currently, in Ukraine, the use and protection of water resources is regulated by a number of laws and other legal regulations, including the "Water Code of Ukraine", the laws "On land reclamation", "On drinking water and drinking water supply", "On environmental protection" and others legislative acts.
The task of water legislation is to regulate legal relations for conservation, as well as scientifically based, rational use of water for the needs of the population and economic sectors, reproduction of water resources, protection of water from pollution, clogging and depletion, prevention of harmful effects of water and elimination of their consequences, improvement of the condition of water objects, as well as protection of the rights of enterprises, institutions, organizations and citizens to use water.
Measures of economical and rational use of water resources include:
- implementation of systems of return water supply and waterless water use (with a cycle of complete purification of waste water);
- development and implementation of scientifically based irrigation standards;
- replacement of water cooling units with air cooling;
- decrease in the share of water-intensive industries in the structure of the economy of Ukraine;
- carrying out a set of measures to protect surface and underground waters from pollution, in particular by sewage, preserving the quality of natural waters, etc.
The State Agency of Water Resources of Ukraine (State Water Agency) is the central body of the executive power, which implements state policy in the field of water management development, management, use and reproduction of surface water resources. Its activities are directed and coordinated by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine through the Ministry of Environment.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that Deputy of the Kyiv City Council Kostyantyn Yalovy stated that the critical shortage of water is a problem that is already urgent for twenty regions of Ukraine.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, in Ukraine, the government gave a start of transfer of reclamation systems from the Ministry of Environment to the management sphere of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy.
