President Volodymyr Zelenskyy demands that the government find a systematic decision to address the problem of annual flooding in the western regions of Ukraine. He made this statement during a conference call on the consequences of bad weather in the west of the country, at which Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal reported on the latest information on the emergency situation in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. The Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior started a working visit to the given region this morning pursuant to the instruction of the Head of State.
"Every year we spend from 500 to 800 million to eliminate the consequences. And this year, probably, there will be more than a billion hryvnias. It's time to find a systemic solution, to reinforce the banks of rivers. To reinforce the banks of the Dniester, the Tysa, to solve this issue once and for all. It is necessary to develop a real big program with the involvement of foreign experience, not to lose people and money every year," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, addressing the Prime Minister.
Denys Shmyhal said that the scale of flooding exceeds that of 2008. In particular, the district hospital in the city of Halych is flooded, patients are being evacuated from a medical institution. The situation is complicated by the fact that there are patients with coronavirus in the hospital.
In total, due to unfavorable weather conditions in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, more than 200 inhabited localities were flooded, there is no access to 29 of them. 110 km of roads and 90 bridges were destroyed in the region. The disaster killed three people. One person went missing.
In the Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv and Chernivtsi regions, 429.7 km of roads and 130 bridges were damaged. Transport connection with 34 inhabited localities was disrupted.
There is no electricity and water supply in the affected inhabited localities.
The Prime Minister, in particular, said that the necessary supplies of water, bread, food and medicine were sent by helicopter to the Verkhovyna district of the Ivano-Frankivsk region. Roads and bridges have been destroyed in mountainous areas, and cargo delivery by air has been hampered by weather conditions. Denys Shmyhal noted that almost three tons of humanitarian aid have been delivered to the region so far.