19 New Water User Organizations Established in Ukraine in 2025
Throughout 2025, the network of water user organizations (WUOs) in Ukraine has been actively developing, taking over the management of irrigation infrastructure. By the beginning of 2026, 73 WUOs have been officially registered, 19 of which were established specifically in 2025.
This is reported by AgroReview
Transfer of Engineering Infrastructure to WUOs
As of January 1, 2026, six water user organizations have acquired ownership of engineering infrastructure objects from irrigation systems. In particular, in 2025, the WUOs “Kvitneve Dzherelo” and “Dovhalivska” became owners. These organizations are already preparing for their first independent irrigation season.
Currently, the procedures for transferring engineering infrastructure to two more WUOs — “Adamivska” (Cherkasy region, Adamiv irrigation system) and “NSP-11” (Odesa region, service area of the NSP-11 pumping station of the Lower Dniester irrigation system) — are ongoing.
Geography and Development of Water User Organizations
Water user organizations are represented in 14 regions, including: Vinnytsia, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Rivne, Kharkiv, Kherson, Cherkasy, and Chernihiv. The largest number of WUOs is concentrated in Cherkasy region (20 organizations) and Odesa region (16 organizations), which are key agricultural regions of the country.
In total, out of the 73 water user organizations, 60 operate on irrigation systems, while 13 are on drainage systems.
33 water user organizations have already entered information about engineering infrastructure objects of the irrigation systems into the State Land Cadastre regarding the irrigation network and are ready to acquire them to manage independently, ensuring water supply for their agricultural lands, attracting investments for the modernization of pumping stations and other irrigation facilities, and implementing energy and water-saving technologies.
Thanks to these changes, WUOs are gaining more opportunities to develop their own infrastructure, implement modern technologies, and enhance the efficiency of water resource use in agriculture.