Ukraine

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Ukraine is part of:
Eastern Europe · Europe & CIS ·
Water Basins of Ukraine:
Black Sea · Cogilnic · Danube · Dnieper · Dniester · Dnipro · Don · Elancik · Kogilnik · Mius · Prut · Sarata · Tisza · Vistula-Wista ·

Facts & Figures

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Capital

Kiev (Kyiv)

Neighbouring Countries

Belarus, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia

Total Area

603,700 km²

- Water

0 km² (0.00%) / 0 m²/ha

- Land

603,700 km²

Coastline

2,782 km

Population

46,480,700 (77 inhab./km²)

HDI^A

0.786 (2007)

Gini Coefficient^A

28.1 (1995)

Nominal GDP^B

$198,000 million

GDP (PPP) Per Capita^B

$7,800

National UN Presence

UNDP, UNHCR, WHO, UNICEF, WB, IAEA

Land Use^C

- Cultivated Land

333,847 km² (55.3%)

- Arable

324,791 km² (53.8%)

- Permanent Crops

9,056 km² (1.5%)

- Irrigated

22,080 km²

- Non cultivated

269,854 km² (44.7%)

Average Annual Rainfall^D

565 mm

Renewable Water Resources^E

139.5 km³

Water Withdrawals^F	37.53 km³/yr
- For Agricultural Use	52%
- For Domestic Use	12%
- For Industrial Use	35%
- Per Capita	764 m³

Population with safe access to
- Improved Water Source	96%
- Urban population	99%
- Rural population	91%
- Improved Sanitation	96%
- Urban population	98%
- Rural population	93%

References & Remarks

^A UNDP Human Development Report

^B CIA World Factbook and Wikipedia

^C CIA World Factbook Country Profiles

^D Aquastat - FAO's Information System on Water and Agriculture

^E CIA World Factbook

^F Earthtrends

1 News
2 Country Profile: Climate, Geography, Socio-Economic Context
3 Country Profile: Water Bodies and Resources
4 Country Profile: Legal and Institutional Environment
5 Country Profile: Water Sector Coordination
6 Country Profile: Trends in Water Use, Management and Sanitation
7 Country Profile: Challenges and Opportunities
8 Articles
9 Projects and Case Studies
10 Publications
11 Who is Who
12 References
13 See also
14 External Resources

News

Country Profile: Climate, Geography, Socio-Economic Context

Country Profile: Water Bodies and Resources

The country can be divided into seven major river basins, all of them discharging into the Black Sea except the Northern Buh which flows towards the Baltic Sea:

The Dnipro basin, covering about 65% of the country.
The Dniester basin, covering 12% of the country. It flows into Moldova before re-entering Ukraine some 50 km before its mouth in the Black Sea.
The Danube basin, covering 7% of the country. Ukraine contributes 7.5% to the total flow of the Danube.
The coastal basin, covering 7% of the country.
The Northern Donetsk basin, covering 4% of the country.
The Southern Buh basin, covering 3% of the country. It is an internal river basin, generating about 3.4 km³/year.
The Northern Buh basin, covering 2% of the country. The Northern Buh River rises in Ukraine and flows north, forming the border with Poland, and then the border between Poland and Belarus.

The Danube River contributes almost 80 percent of inflow to transboundary rivers. Resources are unevenly distributed throughout the country. Some areas experience water shortages. There are about 3,000 natural lakes in Ukraine, with a total area of 2,000 square kilometres. The largest freshwater lakes have an approximate area of 50 square kilometres and are located in the central and southern parts of the country. In addition, there are about 12,000 square kilometres of swamp (peat soil) in the north.

The IRSWR can be estimated at 50.1 km³/year (Figure 2), while the total surface water resources can be estimated at 136.55 km³/year.

The groundwater resources are estimated at 20 km³/year. Artesian wells are found at an average depth of 100-150m in the north of the country and at 500-600m in the south. The overlap between surface and groundwater resources has been estimated at 17 km³/year.

The water resources used by humans are classified as polluted or very polluted. Drinking water often fails to meet quality standards, which poses a major threat to public health. Lack of sewerage and wastewater treatment facilities also contributes to the poor quality of water in Ukraine.

Country Profile: Legal and Institutional Environment

The government is now focusing on expanding supplies of drinking water. Although nearly 100 percent of the population has access to safe water (in rural areas, mostly through wells), the existing network is overburdened. For this reason, and because of energy shortages, many cities receive water only twice a day for a limited number of hours.

Traditionally, the government has focused on providing water for agriculture. But after 1992 this changed. The shift was caused by a lack of capital and the undefined status of land ownership on large areas. Combined with the lack of fuel to pump water, this explains the recent decrease in irrigated areas.

With regards to transboundary water management, Soviet legislation regarding international water issues is still valid, which means that the agreements with Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania - as well as the internal regulations between former Soviet republics -- are still in force. An agreement between Moldova and Ukraine stipulates that Moldova may use water stored in the Curciugan reservoir, located on a tributary of the Dniester river basin. This tributary forms the border between Ukraine and Moldova before it reaches the Dniester.

Country Profile: Water Sector Coordination

See Sector coordination sub-page for detailed description

Country Profile: Trends in Water Use, Management and Sanitation

Country Profile: Challenges and Opportunities

The lack of permanent access to clean drinking water is an important environmental, as well as a health issue in Ukraine. The Dnipro Basin has been described as a classic example of unsustainable development due to the legacy of attempts to transform an agricultural region into a major industrial one in a few decades. More than ten years ago a number of pollutants made the water undrinkable in many areas. These pollutants derived from inadequate sewage treatment facilities, direct discharge of industrial waste, excessive fertilizers, and untreated animal waste. The river was also contaminated by the runoff from areas affected by the Chornobyl accident. Since independence substantial progress has been made towards cleaning up the river but much remains to be done. One of the obstacles in assessing the situation is that data differs considerably. According to one survey conducted in 1999 by UNICEF and the SSC, 98 per cent of the country’s population had permanent access to safe drinking water. Yet, water samples analyzed that same year showed that the water failed to meet the government’s norms for safe drinking water. A subsequent survey conducted by UNDP concluded that only 64 per cent of respondents had running water in their homes.