Improved water services in Ukraine: How can the city of Zurich help?
SKAT brings extensive experience in capacity building and the water sector, along with its prior presence in Ukraine.
The cities of Zurich and Vinnytsia are preparing a cooperation focused on water supply and other water related issues. Vinnytsia’s municipal water services face significant challenges, including long-term under-financing and outdated infrastructure. The ongoing war adds challenges, like a 15% population increase due to internally displaced people, staff shortages, and frequent power outages caused by Russia’s attacks on the national energy infrastructure.
Zurich and Vinnytsia aim to exchange experience between staff of the water utilities and implement joint projects to improve the water supply services to the citizens of Vinnytsia. They approached SKAT to facilitate the development of the cooperation. With our long-standing experience in supporting Ukrainian municipalities and public services, we are helping to design effective exchange activities and projects that maximise value for both partners.
In 2024, SKAT accompanied a Zurich delegation visiting Vinnytsia and developed the concept for the cooperation. A year-long inception phase in 2025 initiates technical exchanges and implements scoping studies in order to prepare concrete projects. In September, a delegation from Vinnytsia, visited Zurich to collaborate on the joint initiatives, get inspiration from water treatment systems in Zurich and exchange with various water experts and institutions from Zurich. The visit also included an official meeting between Corinne Mauch, Mayor of Zurich, and Serhii Morhunov, mayor of Vinnytsia, to sign a memorandum of understanding on the two cities’ cooperation on water.
