Assessment of the Present Condition of Water Resources Use in Ukraine Part of the Dnipro Basin

3. ASSESSMENT OF THE PRESENT CONDITION OF WATER RESOURCES USE IN UKRAINE’S PART OF THE DNIPRO BASIN

SUMMARY

The assessment may be summarized as follows:

1. Distribution of water resources and sectoral structure of economy in the Dnipro basin are extremely unbalanced. The upper part of the basin lies within the flow formation area with insignificant water consumption, while downstream of Kyiv the Dnipro flows through a water transit zone with a low inflow and a high demand for water. In the Dnipro basin regions, 77% of water consumers are concentrated in the river’s lower, transit part. This is an area with predominantly water-consuming backbone sectors, such as industries of the fuel and energy complex, metallurgy, heavy engineering, chemical and petrochemical industry, as well as large power stations, big industrial cities and most of Ukraine’s irrigated land. The Dnipro is also the principal (and sometimes the only) source of water supply for Ukraine’s large centers of industry and agriculture. It would therefore be impossible to fully satisfy the combined demand of all water consumers, even in an average-water year, without creating a system of large storage reservoirs, six high-capacity canals and five waterways on the Dnipro.

2. Water use in 2001 was structured as follows: 60% of the total amount of water consumed was used for industrial purposes, 21% for household uses and drinking, 13% for irrigation, 2% for agricultural needs, and 4% for other purposes. Predominant uses in the basins of the Dnipro’s first-order tributaries – the Pripyat, Desna, Teteriv, Ros, Sula and Vorskla – were household and drinking purposes, and in the southern areas, irrigation. Among the regions, the leading consumers are Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, Kyiv (including the city of Kyiv) and Kherson oblasts and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, which have an 85% share in total water extraction in the Dnipro basin.

Discharge in natural sources in 2001 amounted to 1191 million m³ of polluted water (23% of total water discharge) and 1010 million m³ (20%) of waste water treated to standard quality after treatment facilities. More than one-half of the polluted water was discharged directly into the Dnipro and Kakhovka storage reservoirs. Discharge of polluted water was the highest in Donetsk (94%), Vinnytsia (89%), Zhytomyr (61%), Dnipropetrovsk (40%), Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Kirovohrad (all 32%) oblasts. The most effective treatment facilities in 2001 were in Sumy, where 60% of waste water was treated to standard quality, Volyn (70%) and Kharkiv (70%) oblasts. At Kyiv’s treatment facilities, 55% of waste water was treated to standard quality. Treatment facilities at industrial enterprises in Zaporizhia, Donetsk and Ternopil oblasts were practically inactive. Sectors that accounted for most of the Dnipro water pollution were housing and industry (51%) and communal services (48%).

Dynamics of water use for the last 10 years show practically no change, and even an increase in the relative size, of polluted water inflow in the Dnipro basin in 2001 in comparison with 1990, while total water extraction was down by 55% and discharge, by 46%.

3. Of the total number of Dnipro water consumers (8250) that provide government-required statistical reports, 630 extract 0.001 million m³ and more. Two hundred seven of them extract water directly from the Dnipro (7367 million m³, or 85%) and 423 – from the river’s tributaries (1272 million m³, or 15%). There are 221 water consumers in the Dnipro basin extracting 0.5 million m³ and more. The Kaniv, Dniprodzerzhynsk, Dnipro and Kakhovka storage reservoirs and the Ingulets River bear the heaviest anthropogenic load in the basin. This is were the Dnipro basin’s biggest water intakes, extracting in excess of 100 million m³/year, are located. These intakes include the Kyiv Water Supply Enterprise, Kyiv Cogeneration Plant and Trypillia State District Power Station extracting from the Kaniv storage reservoir; the Dnipro-Donets Basin Canal and Production Department of Aulsk District Water Supply System extracting from the Dniprodzerzhynsk storage reservoir; Dzerzhynskyi Metallurgical Works, Petrovskyi Metallurgical Works, Production Department of Dnipropetrovsk Water Supply and Sewerage Enterprise, Prydniprovsk State District Power Station, Zaporizhia Water Supply Enterprise and Zaporizhstal Combined Metallurgical Works extracting from the Dnipro storage reservoir; Zaporizhia State District Power Station in Enerhodar, Kryvyi Rih Industrial Water Supply Enterprise and Northern-Crimean Canal extracting from the Kakhovka storage reservoir; and Canal Department of the Ingulets irrgation system extracting from the Ingulets basin.

4. According to statistical reports, there were almost 500 water consumers in 2001 in the Dnipro basin discharging 0.001 million m³ and more, which discharged into surface water sources 5278 million m³ of water, or 92% of total water discharge, including 1188 million m³ of polluted water (99,7% of total inflow in the basin). Of total water discharge, 85% was discharged into the Kaniv, Dnipro and Kakhovka storage reservoirs. The largest part of the polluted water, including side inflow, went into the Dnipro (47%) and Kakhovka (22%) reservoirs and the Dnipro downstream of the Kakhovka reservoir (13%). There are 180 water consumers in the Dnipro basin discharging 0.5 million m³ and more. One hundred eighteen of them discharge between 0.5 and 5 million m³, 26 discharge between 5.001 and 10 million m³, 20 discharge between 10.001 and 50 million m³, 5 discharge between 50.001 and 100 million m³, and 11 discharge in excess of 100 million m³. The latter include the Kyiv Cogeneration Plant No. 5, Kyiv Water Supply Enterprise and Trypillia State District Power Station (Kaniv storage reservoir); Dzerzhynskyi Metallurgical Works, Dnipropetrovsk Water Supply and Sewerage Enterprise, Prydniprovsk State District Power Station and Dnipropetrovsk fish farm (Dnipro storage reservoir); Zaporizhia Water Supply Enterprise, Zaporizhia State District Power Station and Zaporizhia nuclear power station (Kakhovka storage reservoir); and Kryvyi Rih Industrial Water Supply Enterprise (the Ingulets). The largest part of the Dnipro basin pollution comes from industrial enterprises of Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhia oblasts. They amount for more than 75% of the discharge of polluted water and pollutants.

5. The maps “Water extraction from surface water bodies in the Dnipro basin” and “Water discharge into surface water bodies in the Dnipro basin” graphically and informatively characterize the present (2001) principal network and parameters of water extraction and discharge in the Dnipro basin.

3.1. Water resources potential

3.2. Use of water resources

3.3. Characteristic of the existing system and main indicators of water intakes in the Dnipro basin

3.4. Water discharge into surface water bodies in the Dnipro basin

3.5. Maps representing the results of assessing the present condition of distribution of water intakes from surface water bodies and water discharge in the Dnipro basin

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