The capital's authorities' plans to complete an inventory of coastal areas and establish water protection strips by January 1, 2020, have failed miserably. Land management projects for 12 water bodies (out of 417 in Kyiv, 118 of which are managed by the Pleso municipal enterprise) have been stalled since 2018 pending approval by the Kyiv City State Administration's Department of Urban Development and Architecture. No funding for the development of such projects was allocated from the city budget in 2019-2020. The Pleso municipal enterprise suggests that "there is a lack of understanding within the Kyiv City State Administration," which may be due to a "political component." As a result, the capital's water bodies continue to shrink and become polluted, and their banks are being developed.
As KV learned from the Pleso Municipal Enterprise's response to a journalist's inquiry, the enterprise is indeed responsible for creating water protection zones to prevent pollution and depletion of water resources. To do this, the municipal enterprise must develop land management plans to establish coastal protection zones for the water bodies under its control.
Moreover, in 2019-2020, no funding was allocated from the capital's budget for the coastal inventory and the mapping of coastal strips of water bodies. Consequently, these works were not carried out at all.
The prospects for developing relevant land management projects this year also appear unclear. The Pleso municipal enterprise's response stated that, for now, only "marketing research is being conducted to determine the necessary funding levels" for 2021.
The situation was no better before 2019. For example, in 2017, the Pleso municipal enterprise purchased "Architectural, Engineering, and Geodetic Services" to create water protection zones at seven water bodies using funds from the Water Protection Fund for a total of UAH 3,1 million. The water bodies in question were:
— Lake Vira and pond No. 14 in the Svyatoshinsky district;
- Lake Beloye, Gorashchikha pond in Obolonsky district;
- Lake Raduga and Lake Telbin in the Dnieper region;
— Lake Nizhniy Telbin in the Darnitsky district of Kyiv.
However, the work was never carried out. According to Pleso, after the relevant contracts were signed, "the winning bidder—the Kyiv City Center for Land Cadastre and Land Privatization—refused to provide the services."
In 2018, Pleso held two open tenders for the services of "Architectural, Engineering, and Geodetic Services (Designation of Coastal Protective Strips)." Ultimately, 6,4 million hryvnias were spent from the capital's budget, but the land management projects have not even been submitted to Kyiv City Council for approval – they are stuck at the approval stage.
For the first time, such projects were prepared for six local water bodies, five of which coincide with the 2017 list:
— Lake Vira and pond No. 14 on the Nivka River (Verkhovinnaya Street) in the Svyatoshinsky district;
— on the artificial reservoir on Bazhan Avenue (Lake Sribnokilskoye; Serebryany Kol) and on Lake Nizhniy Telbin in the Darnitsky district;
- Lake Raduga in the Dnieper region;
— the Gorashchikha pond on the Koturka River in Pushcha-Vodytsia (line 8) in the Obolonsky district.
For these purposes, 2,4 million hryvnias were allocated from the Kyiv city budget.
Then, in 2018, after a reallocation of city budget expenditures for environmental protection measures, an additional 4 million hryvnias were allocated. This funding allowed for open tenders for "Architectural, engineering, and surveying services (creation of water protection zones aimed at preventing pollution and depletion of Kyiv's water resources)" for six water bodies:
— a pond without a name in the village of Mrygi (Staroobukhovskaya St.) in the Goloseevsky district of Kyiv;
— Lake Opechen-1 (Lower, Lake Iordanskoye), Lake Opechen-2 (Upper; Lake Kirillovskoye), Opechen-3 (Lake Bogatyrskoye), Opechen-4 (Lake Ptichye) in the Obolonsky district;
— Lake Lybidske (Lake Glinka) in the Pechersk district of Kyiv.
The Pleso Municipal Enterprise claims that in 2018, design documentation for these 12 water bodies was completed and submitted to the relevant agencies for approval. However, in its official response, the enterprise did not specify which agencies were approved or what the "hiccup" was in obtaining the necessary visas.
Who's slowing down?
As KV has learned, Acting General Director of Pleso, Vitaliy Boyarchuk (pictured right), briefed the Kyiv City Council's Environmental Commission on this issue on March 2, 2021. He then informed the commission members that there are 417 water bodies in Kyiv, of which 118 are owned by Pleso.
According to Boyarchuk, all documents related to the designation of coastal protection zones for Kyiv's water bodies have been pending approval by the Kyiv City State Administration's Department of Urban Development and Architecture since 2018. This applies specifically to the coastal protection zone land management projects developed with budgetary funds for 12 Kyiv water bodies in 2018. Boyarchuk noted that "there is a lack of understanding within the Kyiv City State Administration" on this issue, and without it, it is impossible to achieve results. He suggested that a "political component" may be the reason.
Then, in response to Boyarchuk's information, Denys Moskal, head of the Kyiv City Council's Environmental Commission, issued a protocol order to contact the Kyiv City State Administration's Department of Urban Development and Architecture for clarification on the issue with the approval of the design documentation. The department's response will likely be considered at a meeting of this commission, the date of which has not yet been set.
It's worth noting that to protect the banks of the capital's water bodies from development and pollution, and the water bodies themselves from drying up, water protection zones around them must be officially established. More than two years ago, the Kyiv City Council made another attempt to bring order to this area.
According to Kyiv City Council Resolution No. 1550/5614 of October 2, 2018, "On Certain Measures for the Development of Water Management and Environmental Improvement of Water Bodies in Kyiv City," the Kyiv City State Administration was required to develop and submit to the Kyiv City Council by January 1, 2020, land management projects to establish the boundaries of coastal protection zones for water bodies of local and national importance in Kyiv. This primarily applies to those water bodies that are sources of drinking water or have environmental or recreational significance.
As KV reported at the time, this decision, even at the stage of its adoption, seemed clearly declarative.
It should be noted that even if the documentation approval process for 12 water bodies were "unblocked," the results of the Kyiv City State Administration's work to establish the boundaries of coastal protection zones for water bodies of local and national importance in Kyiv can safely be called a failure. This is also true for the overall process of establishing municipal property plots in Kyiv. KV reported that, according to experts, the Kyiv City State Administration's Department of Land Resources is clearly attempting to merely "legalize" multimillion-dollar financial fraud during the Kyiv land inventory.
Only after the Kyiv City Council approves the approved draft resolution establishing a water protection zone must boundary and water protection markers be installed on the shore of the water body within a month. Any construction (except for hydraulic structures, navigational facilities, hydrometric structures, and linear structures) is prohibited within these markers. At the same time, data for registering the coastal area must be submitted to the State Land Cadastre.
Based on the response from the Pleso municipal enterprise, it follows that even without the installation of boundary markers directly on the shores of Moscow's reservoirs, they are protected by the state. After all, the Supreme Court's ruling of March 29, 2017, in case No. 6-1590ts16, clarified that the absence of a separate land management plan for establishing a coastal protection strip does not indicate its absence, since its width along reservoirs is defined by the Water Code.
Unfortunately, this legal provision is often violated in the capital. For example, unmarked coastal protection zones are often illegally seized for commercial purposes, or, at the instigation of the Kyiv City State Administration's Department of Land Resources, the Kyiv City Council leases some of this land to developers. KV has repeatedly reported on cases of illegal construction in the capital's coastal areas.
This is likely the “political motivation” for delaying the design of water protection zones in Kyiv.
As a reminder, Vitaliy Boyarchuk has been acting CEO of the Pleso municipal enterprise since February 7, 2020. On December 21, 2019, Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko dismissed his predecessor, Oleg Yusypenko, who had led the enterprise as acting CEO since September 8, 2017, and as CEO since December 26, 2018.
The Pleso municipal enterprise is subordinate to the Kyiv City State Administration's Department of Ecology and Natural Resources. Since January 11, 2021, this department has been headed by Oleksandr Vozny.
Since March 2017, Petro Panteleyev, Deputy Head of the Kyiv City State Administration, has been responsible for the rational use and protection of natural resources of national and local significance in Kyiv. As of December 31, 2020, coordination of the Kyiv City State Administration's Department of Ecology and Natural Resources was transferred to Oleksiy Kuleba, First Deputy Head of the Kyiv City State Administration for the Exercise of Local Government Powers. Panteleyev directs and oversees the work of this department.
Oleksandr Svistunov (pictured left) has headed the Department of Urban Development and Architecture of the Kyiv City State Administration since November 1, 2016. The department's work was long managed and overseen by Mykola Povoroznyk, First Deputy Head of the Kyiv City State Administration, but as of April 2, 2021, this function was assigned to Petro Olenych, Deputy Head of the Kyiv City State Administration for the Exercise of Local Government Powers.
Photo: collage by KV
Olga Mariyko
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