PRESS-RELEASE

“You Can Drink Whatever You Poured Before”

A Press-conference “You Can Drink Whatever You Poured Before: drinking water safety and citizens' capacity for improving the situation”, held by the Ukrainian National Environmental NGO “MAMA-86”, tool place in Kyiv, at the House of Scientists, on February 24, 2004. Results of the Pilot Projects Program “Technical Solutions for Improvement of Ukrainian Citizens' Access to Safe Drinking Water in Urban and Rural Areas” as efficient approaches to the resolving critical situations in the area of drinking water supplying were also presented during the press-conference.

The Pilot Projects Program was implemented by “MAMA-86” with the financial contribution of the NOVIB-Oxfam, the Netherlands, during 2001-2003.

About 17 million Ukrainians, including 5 million people living in small towns (20-100 thousand population) and 4 million people from the rural areas, are deprived of access to centralised water-supply. This part of population use water from decentralised sources of water-supply — wells and open sources. The quality of water, which often doesn't meet existent standards, remains a major problem of these sources. There are settlements in Ukraine where population do not have access to water-supply sources at all and have to use water delivered from other sites.

Ongoing reform of the water sector of Ukraine is aimed at resolving these and other associated problems. However, the reform is often realised at consumer's cost.

Thus, “MAMA-86” considered for itself the drinking water problems as priority-driven. The “Drinking Water in Ukraine” Campaign is one of the networking projects of “MAMA-86”. Particularly, the Campaign has implemented the Pilot Projects Program “Technical Solutions for Improvement of Ukrainian Citizens' Access to Safe Drinking Water in Urban and Rural Areas”. According to Ganna Tsvetkova, Campaign Coordinator, 11 pilot projects have been implemented under the three main directions: rational water use and individual water-meters installation; alternative solutions of water supply (installation of additional water purification units, using of local high-quality water sources); and quality drinking water for rural areas (renewal of level of wells using, resolving of problem of water nitrates contamination, etc.).

Improvement of citizens' access to safe drinking water is urgent problem that needs operative actions and tangible interest of public authority of all levels and citizens as well. Today Ukrainian Government has to decide the ways of exercising citizen's right to safe drinking water. This complex task needs involvement and consolidation of efforts of all stakeholders, including government authority, public, business circle and mass media.

For further information, please contact to

Andriy Kumysh,
“MAMA-86” Information Manager,
e-mail: ,
phone: +380 (44) 278-31-01, +380 (44) 278-77-49.