The Cabinet of Ministers approved the Water Strategy of Ukraine until 2050 and the operational plan for its implementation until 2024.
The strategy is designed to solve the main water problems of the country, in particular, equal access to high-quality drinking water, improvement of the ecological state of waters, prevention of droughts, floods, etc., reports Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources.
The press service emphasized that the Strategy is an extremely important document for Ukraine on the way to fulfilling international obligations in the field of water security, the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU, and the UN General Assembly Resolution: Global Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
The head of the Ministry of Environment, Ruslan Strilets, said that every year about 2 million tons of pollutants enter water bodies, namely nitrogen and phosphorus compounds, phenols, petroleum products, and heavy metals. Water resources also suffer from Russian aggression.
"As a result of hostilities, 482 hydrotechnical facilities worth more than 400 million hryvnias have already been destroyed and damaged," he said.
The message noted that the Water Strategy is aimed at:
- ensuring equal access to high-quality drinking water that is safe for human health;
- achieving a good ecological state of waters;
- prevention of droughts, floods and other harmful effects of water;
- sustainable management of water resources according to the basin principle.
Expected results of the Strategy:
- by 2024 – 100% of the legislative framework in the water sector meets EU requirements;
- by 2024 – 9 river basin management plans have been created;
- from 2025 - annual restoration of at least 5 km of small river beds;
- by 2027 – 100% of washing powder contains permitted concentrations of phosphates and other phosphorus compounds;
- by 2032 – up to 20% reduction in the annual amount of damage caused by floods and floods, compared to 2020;
- by 2030 – 100% of the urban population has quality water supply and drainage;
- by 2050 – 95% of the rural population has quality water supply and drainage;
- 2043-2050 years – 100% implementation of indicators of river basin management plans and flood risk management plans.
Strilets emphasized that Ukraine has long needed such an important document in the field of water resources management, which will form a European model of the country's water sector and determine ways to solve problems in it.
As EcoPolitic reported before, The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources together with the Ministry's Reform Support Office Team prepared a project of the Water Policy Development Strategy of Ukraine – Water Strategy of Ukraine.
