Ukraine may experience a shortage of quality drinking water – Head of State Food and Consumer Service

In a few decades, Ukraine may face a shortage of quality drinking water. At present, Ukraine has outdated norms that set requirements for water quality, which, moreover, are not met by most suppliers.

This was stated by the head of the State Food and Consumer Service Vladislava Mahaletska during the Forum on Ecology and Sustainable Development, Hromadske reports.

"Today, decisions have been made to improve the situation: to limit the use of phosphates in soaps and some pesticides (for example, chlorpyrifos)," she said.

The official claims that Ukraine needs to more actively implement European norms. Because they say, this is not a question of European integration, but a "question of survival."

According to Mahaletska, the current legislation doesn't contain norms for monitoring the indicators of bromates, acrylamide, multinuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, vinyl chloride, epichlorohydrin, electrical conductivity, etc.

From 2021, standards for four indicators (acrylamide, vinyl chloride, epichlorohydrin, chlorates) in Europe are a hundred times stricter than in Ukraine, she said.

"Our norms need to be modernized as soon as possible, using the experience of the European Union. The State Food and Consumer Service supports the adaptation of Ukrainian legislation to European norms," ​​the official stressed.

She added that in Ukraine today there were "State sanitary norms and rules 'Hygienic requirements for drinking water intended for human consumption,'" which don't contain a total of 23 indicators of safety and quality of drinking water contained in the relevant EU directives.

According to the WHO, up to a third of the world's population now has no access to drinking water. The WHO also estimates that by 2025, half of humanity will be living in a shortage of clean water.