On the availability of operational reserves of drinking groundwater in Dnipropetrovska, Zaporizka, Mykolaivska and Khersonska regions

Abstract

The share of groundwater in the domestic and drinking water supply in the southern regions of Ukraine is low. At the same time, most villages and some urban-type settlements on their territory are not covered by centralized water supply and sewerage services. The population of these settlements is forced to use drinking water from uppermost aquifers that are not protected from contamination. Therefore, the priority of state policy should be to introduce a system for providing the population with drinking water from groundwater sources. The territory of Dnipropetrovska, Zaporizka, Mykolaivska and Khersonska regions is located within three hydrogeological regions of the first order – the Hydrogeological region of the Ukrainian Shield, Dniprovsko-Donetskyi and Prychornomorskyi artesian basins. This determines the complex and heterogeneous hydrogeological conditions of the studied area. At the same time Dnipropetrovska, Zaporizka, Mykolaivska and Khersonska regions have a significant reserve of drinking groundwater operational reserves, which indicates the possibility of expanding water supply through environmentally protected already explored sources of drinking water. As of 2020, the use of operational groundwater reserves ranged from 0.87% (Dnipropetrovska region) to 14.55% (Zaporizka region). In addition, a number of territorial communities are currently not provided with operational groundwater reserves. The article analyzes the availability of explored operational groundwater reserves in the territorial communities of four regions of Ukraine. Currently, 13 out of 22 territorial communities in Dnipropetrovska region are not provided with operational groundwater reserves; 8 out of 20 territorial communities in Zaporizka region; 10 out of 19 territorial communities in Mykolaivska region; and 8 out of 18 territorial communities in Khersonska region. Thus, about half of the territorial communities in four southern regions of Ukraine do not have explored exploitable groundwater reserves. The possibilities and prospects of providing the population of territorial communities of Dnipropetrovska, Zaporizka, Mykolaivska and Khersonska regions with groundwater are determined.

Keywords

• groundwater
• operational groundwater reserves
• domestic water supply
• dnipropetrovska zaporizka mykolaivska khersonska regions of ukraine
• territorial communities