Zelensky instructs NSDC to address environmental safety

Last spring’s drought forced the authorities to raise the issue of conservation and rational use of water resources.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) to make a decision on the country’s environmental safety, including, in particular, the provision of drinking water to citizens. Zelensky said this during his participation in a meeting on the status and development problems of the water management complex within a working trip to the Rivne region, reported the press service of the Office of the President.

“The issue of preserving and restoring the rational use of water resources requires a high-level examination. We hope that the National Defense and Security Council will take decisions on Ukraine’s environmental security, one of whose issues is to strengthen the rights of the citizens to an adequate standard of living and environmental security guaranteed by the Constitution of Ukraine guaranteeing drinking water in the required quantities, “said Zelensky.

He noted that the draft state budget for next year provides funds for the introduction of the insurance system and the expansion of irrigation programs in Ukraine, mainly in the south. The president added that it is also possible to do so at the expense of state guarantees.

Zelensky focused on the need to maintain a sustainable water balance, which has a direct impact on agriculture and fisheries in Ukraine, technological processes in industry and the quality of the drinking water supply for the population.

“You and I saw that this year in many regions of Ukraine there was a drought: in Kherson, Nikolaev, Odessa, especially in the direction of Bessarabia, there are really difficult conditions,” recalled the president.

According to the results of the meeting, Zelensky ordered the government to resolve the issue of regulating the regulatory framework for the transfer for storage, use, maintenance and long-term restoration of the engineering infrastructure facilities of the management and recovery complex of water to land users conducting economic activities on reclaimed land until early 2021.

Also, by January 1, 2021, the Cabinet of Ministers must develop a concept for the protection and restoration of small and medium rivers in Ukraine.

In the Odessa region, a dry lake is saved with water from the Danube

In May, Ukraine was reported to have lost 230,000 hectares of crops due to drought. At the same time, the Odessa region suffered the most, where almost 150 thousand hectares of crops were recognized as lost.

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