Polluted drinking water and lack of sewage in Vorothka village, Ukraine
Ever tried carrying buckets of water up into a 6 floor appartment building?
07.11.2005 |Solomiya Babyak
View on Vorothka, Carpathian Mountains, Ukraine
Ever tried carrying buckets of water up into a 6 floor appartment building?
By: Solomiya Bayak, WECF
An access to safe drinking water is an indisputable component of the sustainability. For this reason much attention is being paid to drinking water issues in the target villages of the project “Cooperation for Sustainable Rural Development”, which is being conducted by Mama-86 and WECF in Ukraine.
The project started in November 2003 in Vorokhta (a small town in Carpathian mountains), Bobryk (a small village in Chernigiv oblast) and Vertijivka (neighbouring village to Bobryk), and Gozhuli (a village from the suburbs of the city of Poltava). This project is supported by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs MATRA programme.
There are many differences among the target villages such as their size, location, infrastructure etc. but, nevertheless, they all have a common problem – a limited access to safe drinking water.
This article presents updated information about the current developments concerning access to safe drinking water in Vorokhta within the project “Cooperation for Sustainable Rural Development - towards improving the access to safe drinking water for the local citizens”.
One of few public wells in Vorokhta
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The town of Vorokhta, is located in the heart of Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains on the territory of Carpathian National Nature Park. For more than a century this small town is known as a tourist destination and health resort. While the total population of the town is approximately 4,000 inhabitants, over 35,000 tourists visited Vorokhta during the last year (according to the official statistics). The unofficial data, however, might be much higher. Therefore, tourism and resort business (both state enterprises and private entrepreneurs), along with the wood processing business, is the major source of employment and income of the local dwellers. At the same time mentioned businesses add extra pressure on the environment of the town. In order to provide tourists with comfort, local private entrepreneurs substitute latrines with the indoor flush-toilets, install showers, baths and Jacuzzi.
Polluted drinking water and no sewage treatment
The main sources of water for private hotels become either small springs that flow down from the mountains or deep wells. Meanwhile, the state sanatoria and tourist enterprises, together with few inhabitants of the central part of Vorokhta are connected to the dilapidated central water supply system. Marta Korchemlyuk, the head of “MAMA-86 Yaremche” mentioned that at least for few years, the quality of the drinking water in the central water supply system is not meeting national microbiological standards, and the supply of water is constantly interrupted due to often pipe leakages and break-downs. Also, the sewage system is not working at all and all waste water flows directly into nearby river Prut.
Long distances to fetch water
The private houses, that are located farther from the central part of Vorokhta, depend on the private wells, which sometimes fall dry during summertime. In such cases the owners of the dry wells have to go long distances to fetch water either from the neighbours’ wells or from mountain streams.
Carrying bucketws of water up 6 floors
The dwellers of the multi-storey apartment buildings, that are situated at 2 km distance from the centre of Vorokhta, have even worse access to drinking water. They have never been connected to the central water supply system and have to fetch water from distant wells. The quality of water in those wells very often does not meet drinking water standards.
Therefore, many dwellers of Vorokhta dream to be connected to the centralised uninterrupted drinking water supply system.
Map of water pollution now on show in Town Hall
As a part of this project, the members of MAMA-86 Yaremche checked the nitrates concentrations in the water from 50 private and public wells, while 3 public wells have been checked for microbiological pollution. In general, the water quality was good in approximately 70% of the checked wells. All three public wells, however, had extremely high microbiological pollution. Based on the collected information a map of nitrates contamination of the well water has been elaborated and now it is exhibited in the town hall. Moreover, 5 public wells, including the well for a local kindergarten, have been cleaned during this spring. The results showed that cleaning of the wells significantly decreases microbiological pollution, therefore, this practice should be conducted regularly once in few years.
View over Vorokhta
Cooperation with local authorities for improving water and sewage
The next step towards improving the supply of safe drinking water to the dwellers and guests of Vorokhta will be the rehabilitation of the existing centralised water supply system (cwss). Mama-86-Yaremche actively cooperates with the local authorities in this direction. The design of the rehabilitated cwss has been prepared in 2004, and the comments from independent water experts and Mama-86 have been included.
At the beginning of 2005, Mama-86 organised a tender for the best design of water treatment unit, which will be introduced in the rehabilitated central water supply system. It was agreed that the construction of the water treatment unit, which aims to decrease microbiological pollution of the drinking water especially during rainy season, will be substantially financed by MATRA project. The local authorities, in their turn, promise to cover all the other remaining costs, necessary for the cwss rehabilitation.
Lack of cooperation different authorities blocks progress
The construction activities were planned to start already in summer 2005. Unfortunately, an unexpected bureaucratic problem appeared. The local sanatorium, which belongs to the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, is the primary water user in Vorokhta (i.e. it has a permit for water collection and thus it has a position of water monopolist). The Ministry of Health seems not to be interested to let the village council become responsible for water supply in Vorokhta. The existing situation undermines primary human right for an access to safe drinking water for the inhabitants of Vorokhta. Therefore, for the last few months Mama-86-Yaremche is doing advocacy work on Ukrainian national authorities to solve this legal issue and, in such a way, to let the rehabilitation of the central water supply system take place.
