For 13 years of its functioning the Swiss-Ukrainian Project “Decentralisation Support in Ukraine” has financed approximately 200 projects providing villages, towns and AHs with potable water, having spent almost $13 million. Water pipe creation has always been considered to be a driver for village development. More than a thousand km of water nets have been built not just for people to obtain water access but also for villages to get an impetus for development.

DESPRO has also been raising the issue of waterless villages, often left behind by the government.

- We are assisting active hromadas, itching to solve the water supply issue, and are ready to participate in it, – claims Vyacheslav  Sorokovskyi. – However, the state policy has to be completely different as a hromada that needs water pipes most of all, can prove to be too institutionally weak to file a project application. Under the circumstances the smartest hromadas get access to resources, including the budget ones, which is not right. That is why it would be reasonable to change the project selection procedure, considering aims, results and project interference stability, rather than the local authorities capability. Moreover, to define a real hromada need of a water pipe profound analytics is necessary. Ukraine must have a village rate, being in urgent need of a water pipe.

Otherwise the state risks losing hundreds of villages. Currently 824 settlements, inhabiting 274 thousand residents are in danger…