On 23 June, Virginijus Sinkevičius, EU Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries and Ruslan Strelets, Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine visited the the Interregional office of protective arrays of Dnipro reservoirs of the State Agency of Water Resources of Ukraine in Vyshhgorod.
The laboratory was upgraded under the European Union Water Initiative Plus (2016-2021) project. It was a milestone on the road to a clean environment and clean water for Ukraine. The laboratory is now able to conduct state-of-the-art water analysis which enables detection of heavy metals, industrial chemicals and pesticides in lower concentrations and with higher precision in the Dnipro, Desna and Prypiat rivers. With this successful renovation, Ukraine showed its commitment and ability to move towards the best EU and international standards.
The EU4Environment Water and Data programme (2021-2024) supports Ukraine in its green recovery. The programme aims to build capacity for the laboratory staff and support the accreditation of the Laboratory. The accreditation will confirm that results provided by the Vyshhorod laboratory are officially valid, comparable, consistent, and trustworthy, hence policy decisions can be taken based on solid scientific evidence. This new EU-funded programme will also introduce COVID-19 wastewater monitoring and realise a pilot testing with wastewater and health institutions.