(MENAFN- UkrinForm) This was announced by Serhii Sukhomlyn, head of the State Agency for Infrastructure Restoration and Development, in an exclusive interview as part of the Mykolaiv project, which will be released on Ukrinform's YouTube channel at 4 p.m.

After Russian troops destroyed Mykolaiv's water supply system in 2022, the city was left without fresh water. The issue of restoring it became one of the key issues in the process of rebuilding critical infrastructure, Sukhomlyn recalled.

According to him, a significant number of consultants and engineers were involved in the development of the new project in order to take into account all technical and safety aspects.

"In the process, we refined it to improve the quality of the work. We even took into account the inner pipe-a material that reduces electricity consumption. We also considered various options to reduce the cost of water for the city of Mykolaiv . We worked on additional solar power plants to reduce electricity consumption. This represents approximately 15-18% savings in electricity consumption. And, in fact, this means a lower bill by the same percentage," Sukhomlyn noted.

He clarified that the project uses technologies that have not been used in Ukraine before.“The technologies here are completely different. Soviet water pipes did not have the same frequency converters, so there were water hammer effects when the water supply was interrupted or the pressure needed to be increased. This will no longer be the case here,” he explained.

During construction, special attention was paid to security issues. In particular, the protection of facilities from enemy attacks. "This includes anti-drone protection at water pipeline facilities. There are already shelters for personnel here. This includes fiber optic control of the water pipeline. There are many things here that have never been used before. The same solar power plants," said the head of the Restoration Agency.

According to Sukhomlyn, one of the main difficulties was conducting a comprehensive examination of the project documentation. "We looked at the master plan for the city of Mykolaiv. We saw that it had not been updated since 2007. Therefore, they estimated a need for 160,000 cubic meters. We analyzed their current needs, what they had before the war, and their current losses. It turned out that 120,000 cubic meters would be enough," he said.

The new water pipeline will supply water to more than 500,000 residents of Mykolaiv. Its total length is 67 km. An additional 15 km were laid to supply farms. Today, this is a unique infrastructure project that demonstrates Ukraine's ability to implement large-scale technical solutions in accordance with modern European standards, even in wartime, noted the head of the Recovery Agency.

Photo: gov

“It is very important to show, including to our European partners, that we are able to implement projects efficiently, quickly, and sometimes even cheaper than estimated, including by their consultants,” Sukhomlyn concluded.

As reported, the Recovery Agency has fully completed the construction of the Mykolaiv water pipeline; as of October 7, the centralized supply of fresh water has been restored.

Drinking water disappeared from the taps of Mykolaiv residents on April 12, 2022, due to the Dnipro-Mykolaiv water pipeline being cut off by Russian invaders. Since then, only technical water has been flowing there.

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The construction of a new water pipeline from Nova Odesa to Mykolaiv, costing UAH 6.2 billion, has reached its final stage. It involves the construction of a water intake from the Southern Bug and a water pipeline over 67 km long, consisting of three sections.

The pipeline's capacity is 120,000 cubic meters per day for Mykolaiv and 50,000 cubic meters for the irrigation system of the city of Nova Odesa and the Mykolaiv district.

The full version of the interview will be available later on Ukrinform's YouTube channel.

For more details on how the water supply in Mykolaiv was restored at all stages, see the program“Mykolaiv,” which will soon be available on Ukrinform's resources.

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