Ukraine will carry out comprehensive monitoring of water conditions in the basins of Ukraine's largest rivers. Monitoring will be carried out at 553 points located throughout Ukraine. The relevant program was recently approved by the Ministry of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture.
According to the State Agency for Water Resources, the state of water resources will be checked in the basins of the Dnieper, Danube, Dniester, Don, Southern Bug, Vistula, and Black Sea rivers.
The monitoring will focus particularly on drinking water supply facilities. There will be 142 quality control points at reservoirs used to supply drinking and domestic water.
Ukraine will also monitor the condition of water flowing into neighboring countries. Another 43 monitoring points will operate in cross-border sections of waterways.
How and who will check water quality?
Three key types of monitoring are planned:
- Diagnostic monitoring: This will be carried out for the initial assessment of water bodies at 45 points;
- Operational monitoring: Implemented for regular water quality control at 494 points;
- Investigative monitoring: Aims to study water resources in greater depth at 14 points.
The responsibilities for conducting the research will be assigned to two main bodies, each of which will focus on specific characteristics of the collected samples:
- The State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SESU) will analyze biological, physicochemical, and hydromorphological indicators;
- The State Agency of Water Resources will measure priority chemical characteristics as well as specific basin-related parameters.
Why is monitoring necessary?
Systematic research data will allow not only for the analysis of water status in reservoirs but also for the assessment of the effectiveness of various water management measures.
There are also additional risks of pollution “migration” across the border. Ukraine is in a state of full-scale war, so rivers can carry pollutants into other countries. For this reason, the state monitoring program takes these potential risks and Ukraine’s transboundary obligations into account.
The State Agency of Water Resources also highlights the role of Ukraine’s Water Strategy until 2050. Systematic water monitoring corresponds to its objective No. 5.
EcoPolitic previously reported that eco-activists have created an interactive map of water quality. This map provides information on nitrate contamination levels in boreholes and wells.
