International organizations help make Ukraine optimistic

A TOWN THAT GIVES HEAT

Lying thirty kilometers outside Odesa, Teplodar merits the status of Chornobyl victim. The 1986 explosion of the fourth power unit at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant has frozen the construction of new nuclear plants throughout the country, including the one in Teplodar. Some 9,000 residents of the young town built especially for the nuclear plant personnel were left to their own resources. None of the international agreements signed by the Ukrainian leadership provided for their future. As a result, those at the top decided to build a new thermal power plant on the site where the nuclear power plant was to be built. In subsequent years, until the late 1990s Teplodar lived on expectations that never materialized. The collapse of the country’s economy was followed by the inevitable collapse of local economies. The town, whose very name implies that it should give heat, found itself on the verge of freezing. International experts of the USAID-funded EcoLinks Environmental Partnership Program have come to the rescue of the town authorities and helped them find a way out of the crisis. The agency provided nearly $44,000 for a feasibility study and development of a strategy to reduce emissions and improve energy efficiency at the Teplodar facility that officially known as the Odesa Heat Power Plant No.2.

“For year a team of engineers sent here from Prague by the CRS International Company as part of the project, along with their Kyiv colleagues analyzed and studied in detail the operation of the boiler installation,” says Odesa Power Plant No.2 director Mykola Lomakin. “Using state-of-the-art equipment, the specialists estimated losses in the network of the heat transmission mainlines. The specialists studied our technical documentation and provided an extensive analysis of our potential capacity, along with recommendations. By following them, our enterprise has managed to increase its environmental and economic efficiency several times over.

“Of course, the enterprise personnel knew full well the problem areas at the Teplodar facility. But thanks to the EcoLinks project team this knowledge has moved from the theoretical plane to that of practical decisions. One such step was a switch from bunker fuel to natural gas. Simple calculations showed that natural gas is two-and-a-half times cheaper than bunker fuel. The town residents, of whom every second was jobless at the time, could not afford to pay double for their heat. The boiler stood idle without fuel, as there was no money to buy it. The analysis has justified the need for urgent investment into switching the boiler to natural gas. As a result, the project was approved by the Oblast Administration, which then provided funding. By December 2000 two boilers of the power plant had been switched to natural gas.”

Another problem addressed by EcoLinks specialists was reducing emissions. Teplodar lies in a resort area. According to environmentalists, limits on emissions are very strict here. Moreover, the town is circled by Biliayiv district farms, whose produce is used in the production of baby food and juices. The issue of environmental safety in this area was a sore point in the Oblast Council even at the stage of planning the plant.

“Under the project drafted by the EcoLinks team, the reconstruction of the power plant and switching the boiler to natural gas envisioned the construction of a 120- meter chimney to replace the old 40- meter one, since a higher chimney can scatter emissions over a larger area thereby reducing their concentration. The chimney was built but not completed. We fell short of a very negligible amount to complete the chimney and put it into operation,” Lomakin said.

The shortage of funds for vital projects is a major problem for all small cities in Ukraine, and Teplodar is no exception. It was unable to implement some of the proposals and recommendations of the foreign experts for lack of funds. Two million hryvnias are needed to replace the heat insulation of the heat transmission mains with modern insulation materials. Another million is needed to switch the remaining two boilers of the power plant to natural gas. UAH 850,000 is needed to complete the higher chimney. According to the expert findings, “To achieve the end goal of the project $1.4 million is needed. The payback period is between one and five years. The payback period for a new hot water supply system is twelve years.” The document further reads that if the recommended measures are taken, this will help significantly cut heat production, transport, and maintenance costs.

WATERLESS LIFE OF OLD AKKERMAN

Unlike quite young Teplodar, Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky has an old history. Although founded over 2,500 years ago, the town faces similar problems.

Ancient Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky lies on the bank of an estuary next to the best resorts in Odesa oblast, Zatoka and Serhiyivka. Even before Christ in the days of the Greeks and Romans the town was a flourishing trade colony called Tira. Its unique location contributed to its commercial development. Lying at a crossroads of three worlds, Barbarian- Thracian, Scythian, and Greek, it was never empty nor destroyed. In the modern period the town was renamed Akkerman, Turkish for white city. The locals still prefer this ancient name to the awkward Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky.

However, what Barbarian hordes failed to accomplish in 2000 years, a group of reckless managers has done in a decade. Thanks to their efforts the verdant and flourishing Akkerman has fallen into ruin: industries have ground to a halt, the port has been mothballed, and utilities have deteriorated. Since 1990, 52,000 residents of Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky had no indoor hot water. Since 1994, their central heating had been cut off. The town has not switched to natural gas, while the town budget cannot afford the costly bunker fuel.

But, according to the locals, they could live even with this, if it were not for another major problem, that is, water shortages. Despite the fact that Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky lies in the immediate vicinity of the Dnister River, the water pipe system has been designed in such a way that the town is the last in line to get water. After Odesa, Illichivsk, Zatoka, and a dozen villages the pipe is almost empty. For the past ten years local residents have received water according to a water rationing schedule: two hours in the morning, two during the day, and two in the evening. Moreover, the water contains an array of harmful bacteria, salts, and metals and smells of rotten eggs. While in past years the town has seen a recovery in other spheres of its life, with businesses mushrooming, a gas pipeline construction started, and the heating issue set afoot, the problem of the town water utility remained unsolved. The EcoLinks project team has ventured to help Akkerman solve the problem.

“We started to implement the EcoLinks project at our enterprise in February 2002,” says Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky Water Utility Director Oleksandr Dukach. “Having analyzed our water management system, the EcoLinks project team offered us its conclusion, which can be divided into three components: a new economical water supply system, a project to improve the quality of sewage water treatment, and energy saving measures. I will say at once that the Czech engineers in fact opened our eyes on our town water supply system. They have found that the water supply system had been designed faultily and pointed to its low energy efficiency. They proposed building on the basis of one of the reservoirs a new complex with a pumping station using all modern energy saving technologies. They have developed a feasibility study of this installation. Unfortunately, to implement this project we lack such a trifle as money. But if we manage to find it, we certainly know where and how to invest it.”

EcoLinks experts also proposed building a new water supply line to link Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky and the Dnister along with a new water treatment plant. Incidentally, even under the Soviets, engineers developed a similar project and even began construction. An unfinished water treatment plant is now rotting near the Izmayil highway. The Czechs did not know anything about it, but concluded it was necessary out of economic feasibility considerations.

Another major problem of the town studied in detail by the EcoLinks project team is its sewage system. “Unlike young towns, our sewage networks are over thirty years old,” says Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky Mayor Mykola Cherbadzhi, adding, “Practically all of them are in critical condition. The problem is that the Soviet builders designed the sewage system in such a way that the sewer mains lie six meters underground. Just try digging them out! Some of the water mains have been long rotten underground. What kind of water quality is there to speak of?” Two years ago Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky made headlines when two of its sewage reservoirs leaked flooding town streets and Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky estuary with 1,500 cubic meters of sewage daily.

Water shortages and sewage leaks pose a major problem for any settlement. However, for an aspiring resort town that could attract an influx of tourists, effective water supply and sewage systems are critical.

According to Mayor Mykola Cherbadzhi, “Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky is the gateway to Besarabia. In the summer it overflows with tourists, and we do everything possible to make them stay in our town as long as possible. There are things to see here. We only lack advertising and, of course, funds for creating adequate conditions for vacationers.”