The other day, the U-LEAD with Europe Programme held an event for representatives of municipalities of the southern oblasts on "How can municipalities manage water resources: important things to know?" with the participation of Oleksandr Hnitetskyi and Oleksandr Prydatko, Experts in Spatial Planning and Natural Resources Management.
The southern oblasts are characterised by a large number of waterworks designed for fishing and technical production. Most of them were built by collective farms. This raises numerous issues regarding the owners of certain structures, as well as the specifics of leasing water bodies. At the same time, the waterworks and infrastructure require servicing, repairs and maintenance.
"Today, one of the main tasks for municipalities in the field of water management is to search for all such objects and determine who is their manager," the experts said.
The speakers acquainted the participants with the main laws and other regulations that govern activities in this area: Law of Ukraine No. 2989-IX "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Improving State Regulation in the Field of Fisheries, Conservation and Rational Use of Water Bioresources and Aquaculture", Law of Ukraine No. 2079-IX "On the Organisation of Water Users and Peculiarities of Using Reclaimed Lands". They amended the legislation on water resources management, waterworks, aquaculture and introduced an electronic fishing ticket, the possibility of establishing water user organisations and concluding land lease agreements together with the water body located there.
The participants also got answers to their specific questions during the discussion: water body leasing and allocating land plots for coastal protection zones.
The experts explained that water bodies are provided for use on a lease basis without limiting general water use rights, except in cases determined by law. Prohibition of general use and misuse of water bodies is a ground for terminating the lease agreement.
As for the coastal protection zones, within the boundaries of the settlements, they are established according to comprehensive plans for the spatial development of the territories of municipalities, master plans of settlements, and in the lack of these plans or if the boundaries of such zones are not established by the urban planning documentation, their width is 25, 50, 100 metres, depending on the status of the water body. Where necessary, the boundaries of coastal protection zones are determined by amending the settlement master plans.