Water supply improvement in Dercen, a rural village in Ukraine

Dercen is a rural village in Transkarpathia, the most western province of Ukraine. Families in Dercen use shallow groundwater for their households, for cattle watering and gardening. They take it from private hand-dug wells or public wells alongside the street. Some households use rainwater as a complementary water source for cattle watering and gardening. During the summer season many of the shallow wells in Dercen run dry. In the eastern part of the village, which is located higher, wells have been empty for many years. The last option for villagers is to buy water from the deep well nr. 845 at the former kolkhoz or from the deep well nr. 1233 at the school. Water from the deep wells is delivered with tractors in pulled tank carts to the homes, where it is discharged into the empty well in the yard. The village council in Dercen would like to improve the water supply in the village. This study intends to collect the necessary data and to provide Dercen's village council with a plan for improvement of Dercen's water supply. During two fieldtrips to Transkarpathia all kinds of data were gathered. The capacity and water quality of private and public wells in Dercen were determined. Possible raw water sources for a new water supply system were identified and tested. The current and future water demands were determined and calculated. Several options for water supply improvement were discussed with key persons in the village. Dercen has four possible water sources: rainwater, surface water from channels, shallow groundwater and deep groundwater. Rainwater, surface water and shallow groundwater in Dercen are not reliable in terms of capacity and water quality. Deep groundwater would be the most suitable raw water source for a new water supply system in Dercen. A final design for a new water supply system was developed with deep groundwater as raw water source and a piped distribution system with house connections. The deep groundwater needs removal of hydrogen sulphide, methane, turbidity, iron and manganese. Increase of the oxygen content is also required. The proposed treatment consists of aeration, rapid sand filtration in pressure filters followed by post-chlorination. The polyethylene distribution network is connected to an elevated buffer basin on top of Kis Hill, which is the highest point in the area. The design of the distribution network was done with EPANET 2.0 software. A phased implementation is proposed. According to the proposed final design during phase 1 only water from the existing deep well nr. 1233 at the school will be used. For phase 2 one or two new boreholes will be drilled on a protected location outside the village. The treatment for phase 1 will be extended with a second line for phase 2. The distribution network is implemented without phasing. Probably the majority of the families in Dercen is willing to pay for water. However, people in Dercen have limited financial resources. The community of Dercen needs financial support to realise the proposed water supply improvement. Within Dercen's borders different types of groundwater are present. This is due to the fact that Dercen is located in a karst area. As a consequence the drilling of new boreholes must be done with thorough preparatory geohydrological research. The quality of Dercen's water resources is threatened by uncontrolled disposal of domestic waste and discharge of domestic wastewater, intensive use of pesticides in agriculture and former military activities in the vicinity of the village. Groundwater sources in Dercen could be extremely vulnerable to pollution, because Dercen is situated in an area with karst. In Dercen it is even more important that serious attention will be paid not only to the improvement of water supply facilities, but also to sanitation and pollution prevention