Forecast of a Kyiv housing and utilities analyst: Post-war Ukraine will not have money even for sewerage
In Ukraine there is no money even for repairing sewerage and water pipes in cities.
This was stated by energy and housing and communal services expert Oleg Popenko on the air of the video blog of political scientist Yuriy Romanenko, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
"What affects every person, every one of us, and people's lives is the infrastructure we have: water utilities, sewerage, heating and power, housing. And now we're faced with what's going to happen to it, how can we restore it, because we're desperately short of funds ," Popenko said.
He recalled that the United States had not been involved in the restoration of post-war Europe for a decade and a half, and would not be involved in Ukraine at all.
"Without war, our infrastructure isn't just a leaky sieve, it's just full of huge holes. Let's go back to the water utility's figures; they were published. Local budgets currently budget water utilities at 4 billion hryvnias per year. That's what they can afford. So, there's not enough money. What is 4 billion? That's just for operational activities, to cover the electricity debt. So, they don't have the money to repair the pipes . This is a simple figure we need to understand.
More globally, 40% of water utilities can't cover 20% of their expenses at all; they have no money, and local councils don't fund them. It's impossible to restore even a working sewer system; if there's no sewer system for three days, it's simply physically impossible to live in the city. So, to restore the water utilities' operations, we need between $9 and $14 billion.
"Teplokommunenergo cites figures of $180 to $200 billion they need to restore. And the housing stock, to replace what people lost, would also cost around $100 billion. That kind of money simply doesn't exist ," the expert concluded.
English version :: Read in English Forecast from a Kyiv housing and utilities analyst: Post-war Ukraine won't even have money for sewerage