Today, February 17, people's deputies during the plenary session considered the draft law No. 5202-d "On water user organizations and stimulation of hydrotechnical land reclamation."

According to the voting results, the bill was adopted by 279 votes in favor in the second reading and as a whole.

Recall that the draft law No. 5202-d “On water user organizations and stimulation of hydrotechnical land reclamation” was supported by deputies in September 2021 in the first reading.

Positions of the bill:

• establish clear rules that will allow investing in the development and modernization of reclamation infrastructure;
• increase the efficiency of the use of reclamation systems;
• will increase the area on which irrigation is applied.

However, the farmers urged the deputies not to support the bill No. 5202-d. They believe that such a legislative initiative threatens to monopolize the irrigation system by large agricultural companies, increase the cost of irrigation and lead to negative consequences.

As the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Roman Leshchenko noted, during the period of independence, irrigation areas have been rapidly declining annually and from 2.3 million in 1990 there are only 550 thousand left in 2021. Among the reasons are the theft of pumping station equipment and high tariffs for irrigation , and lack of public funds to restore irrigation infrastructure.

“It was to save the industry that decentralized mechanisms for managing land reclamation in Ukraine were developed in the bill,” the minister added.

By this law, according to him, the parliamentarians laid the foundations for reforming the reclamation industry in Ukraine, without which it would be possible to forget about efficient, economical irrigation in the coming years.

“From now on, all water users can unite in legally registered associations, take on the balance of irrigation system facilities and manage them through collective decisions, where the voice of each water user will be important. It is this form of industry management that can bring it out of decline. Irrigation systems should be managed by those directly dependent on them. These are agrarians, land users and landowners and not an official in Kiev or even in the region,” summed up Roman Leshchenko.

Kurkul.com