Russia’s winter wave of strikes on Kyiv and other cities has left swathes of Ukraine without power as temperatures plunge, and the attacks are also taking out the water supply by cutting electricity for pumping stations, bursting pipes, and triggering floods. Some people have resorted to melting snow to meet their needs.
Repairing a country under attack is a Sisyphean task. Foreign investors are hesitant to begin infrastructure projects until the war stabilizes, and the Ukrainian government is reluctant to divert funds from the military. This means civil society has cracks to fill, using cheaper, portable solutions like water filters and pumps.
Simple mechanical filters provide access to drinking water when a community has lost its supply, and can be installed in barrels or buckets, using gravity to filter bacteria at a rate of one liter (1.75 pints) a minute. The Ukrainian Water Association, headquartered in Kyiv, acts as a distribution hub for emergency water supplies, sourcing filters from manufacturers, working with grass-roots charities to deliver them, and liaising with government bodies.
Sasha Slezinger, an engineer at Washington-based water company Xylem who helps provide emergency equipment to Ukraine, said access to drinking water has become a class issue. Speaking in a personal capacity, he said shortages hit Ukraine’s elderly and vulnerable the hardest.
“Water access isn’t too much of an issue if you’re financially stable,” he said, adding that most people buy bottled water. “But for older folks who might have no income or are unable to leave villages near the frontline, it can be another worry.”
It is clear that graft scandals in the energy sector have also shaken confidence. The Ukrainian Water Association lists “the elimination of corruption” as one of its major goals.
Alexandre Starinsky, director of international partnerships at the Ukrainian Water Association, said mismanagement and bureaucracy are major hurdles for the industry. The public sector lacks a unified water body, with the Ministry of Agriculture controlling irrigation, the Ministry of Environment controlling wastewater, and the Ministry of Development of Territories controlling water supply.
Starinsky hopes the creation of a European-style water “cluster,” in which the public and private sectors cooperate, will improve transparency and make Ukraine’s water market more appealing to local and foreign investors. Some existing European clusters have offered to help, he said.
Ukraine’s water woes predated Vladimir Putin’s attempt to destroy civilian life in the country. Soviet-era infrastructure and the presence of toxic metals meant tap water was not widely drinkable, especially in industrial and post-industrial regions.
In 2021, the World Bank ranked Ukraine just 125th out of 180 countries in terms of per-capita access to drinking water — on a par with Chad and Sudan. Modernization already lagged other sectors before bombs added to pollution, Russian drones destroyed infrastructure, and defending soldiers damaged pipelines to stall enemy advances.
And the bill rises with each day that fighting continues.
Paul Hughes, a Canadian based in Kharkiv since 2022, delivers emergency water supplies via his network HUGS. He said limited resources have led to innovative solutions to tackle water shortages in eastern Ukraine.
\“The water infrastructure is like an old banger of a car that somehow keeps going despite being patched up many times,” he said. “You see people making very imaginative repairs.”
His network, which responds to demand, has also sent emergency water filters to at least two Ukrainian frontline units.
While stopgap fixes to water infrastructure keep Ukrainians alive, there are harder questions about long-term reconstruction.
The total cost of rebuilding Ukraine was estimated last year at $1 trillion over the following 14 years. Water systems need lesser but still significant funds.
Ukraine’s latest budget brought sobering if unsurprising news for civilians. Whilst spending on education and healthcare rose, funding for the State Agency for Reconstruction and Development of Infrastructure was cut from 45 billion to 28 billion hryvnias ($667m). With Ukraine still fighting for survival, funds will continue to be spent on the military, and it’s likely that civilian infrastructure will continue to be destroyed.
While question marks remain over support from the US administration — direct support has been very significantly reduced — Europe will need to guarantee Ukraine’s future water security.
As well as securing supplies for Ukraine’s people, investing in clean, safe water would provide environmental and economic benefits for Europe. Ecological disasters like Moscow’s destruction of the Kakhovka dam not only devastated a vital freshwater supply but also swept sewage into the Dnipro River and the Black Sea, threatening marine and coastal life in all the littoral states.
Ukraine is an agrarian country that needs a reliable water supply and unpoisoned soil to farm, if it is to rebuild its economy, trade with its neighbors, and repay its debts.
International organizations have already been working with the Ukrainian Water Association, and a land reclamation project was launched in January with US support. Those involved hope that providing Ukrainian farmers with modern irrigation equipment and restoring land to its prewar state will increase Ukraine’s usable farmland by as much as 1 million hectares. But this is only one element of the massive task of restoring water security.
Civil society has links to communities on the ground, and in many cases has already identified areas for private sector involvement. When the time comes to rebuild Ukraine and restore clean water to everyone, civil society should remain at the heart of the work.
Pippa Crawford is a journalist who formerly worked in business intelligence and as a conflict analyst and translator for the BBC. She holds an MA in Political Analysis of Russia and Eastern Europe from UCL’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies, and has contributed war reporting and cultural reviews to a range of UK and international outlets.
Europe’s Edge is CEPA’s online journal covering critical topics on the foreign policy docket across Europe and North America. All opinions expressed on Europe’s Edge are those of the author alone and may not represent those of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis. CEPA maintains a strict intellectual independence policy across all its projects and publications.
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